


Family Values

by beforethedawn, ConstructFairytales, Destinyawakened



Series: Buddhist and the Bear [4]
Category: Charlie Countryman (2013), Hannibal (TV), Hannibal Extended Universe - Fandom, The Big C (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anal, Anal Sex, BearDogs, Blow Jobs, Daddy Kink, Dogs, M/M, Masturbation, No Hannibal Lecter, Oral Sex, Phone Sex, Puppies, Separated at Birth, Serial Killing, Smut, The Mob, Wendigo, Wendigos, Will Graham Has Encephalitis, hannigram AU, hannigram tagged since it's technically a hannigram au rarepair, hurt comfort, lingerie fetish, male lingerie fetish, nigel might be a cannibal, will and lee are twin brothers, winodogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 21:55:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 69,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9568511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beforethedawn/pseuds/beforethedawn, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConstructFairytales/pseuds/ConstructFairytales, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Destinyawakened/pseuds/Destinyawakened
Summary: Nigel's had to run back to Romania to fix up a few loose threads with Darko. When he returns he finds his husband at his brother's house, who seems to either crazy or really 'fucking' sick. Nigel takes it on himself to help Will out, he's family after all and in return Will will do the same.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> 1) Beta'd by us, editing done quickly, let us know if there is something very wrong!  
> 2) This one's a multi-chapter, longer story. Really hope you guys like this one, it's been a pleasure to write Will and Lee in the same room for a longer period, and let Will get to know his brother and brother in law.  
> 3) Timeline, we are currently running Hannibal season 1, AU! There is no Hanni, sorry guys.

Something had happened, and Lee wasn’t sure of what, but Nigel said he had to leave one night, and right then. Lee was left with Beauty and the guards, and that was that. Nigel said he’d call in a few days, that he’d get to Lee when things settled and let him know where he was then. Days passed and Lee, sick with worry even when he tried not to be, meditated more, ran more, and slept less. He called his brother, Will, a lot, tried to make conversation with the guards outside, but most of them only nodded at him until he left back into the penthouse. It was lonely.  _ Lee  _ was lonely.   
  
Finally, Lee’s phone rang, from Nigel’s number around midnight. 

Glancing at the screen, Lee picked it up, neon bright in the stark of the pitch blackness. He wasn’t asleep anyway, just staring, more for Beauty’s sake. He slid his finger across the screen and hit the speakerphone icon. “There you are.”

“Hey, baby, good morning,” Nigel said into the phone. He sounded exhausted, but there was a smile in his voice when he heard Lee’s voice.    
  
Nigel was sitting on the edge of a bed in a run down hotel room. He couldn’t make his presence obvious, here, he had to keep himself hidden, at least for now. “Were you sleeping?”

“No,” Lee said, though really he should be, but his mind was too quiet without Nigel around, and he never thought he’d say that. “I am in bed though.”

“What fucking time is it there? Midnight?” Nigel asked, looking at the cheap clock on the bedstand of the hotel room that was mostly lit by the red light of the neon sign outside that poured itself over Nigel’s features, soaking him in scarlet.

“Around that time,” Lee said, rolling onto his stomach, across the bed, taking up the whole thing. He’d not slept alone since he was in Germany, sick, and even then Nigel was near by. When had he become so dependent?

“What have you been up to, Little Bird?” Nigel asked, closing his eyes, able to imagine Lee safe, at home, exactly where he should be.    
  
Next to Nigel on his night stand were three guns, loaded and ready to go, a packed duffel bag, a hat and a pair of shades, and a crowbar.

“Running, meditating, walking the dog,” Lee sighed, “I went shopping a few times. Did a class down at the clinic on yoga…” 

“Yeah? Class full of housewives?” Nigel guessed, and felt a pang of frustration in his chest that he had to leave the fucking country so suddenly, that he had to leave Lee. It made him ache, and worry, even though he’d had Lee followed everywhere by armed detail. 

“Yeah, you know the type,” Lee chuckled, longingly. He paused, ankles crossed as he laid out over the bed. “I miss you, my bear.”

“I fucking miss you, too, Baby …” Nigel said with a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry I had to leave like that.” He paused, and stretched an arm back, laying it behind his head as he talked to Lee. “A dozen of my guys were gutted and gunned down here, in one fucking night. Someone knew who to hit, and where they were meeting ... This is something I have to do myself.”

Lee never asked for specifics, most of the time he was happy to be ignorant to it, and felt a pang of guilt hit him like a ton of bricks. “Of course. I understand, you know that.”

“I’d never just run off like that unless I had to, Baby, you know that, right?” Nigel asked. He knew he’d hit the fucking roof if Lee just ran out one day, and his stupid, attached heart kept agonizing over whether or not Lee felt abandoned over it.

Lee would never say as much, he was understanding to point, and that point had a high, high marker. Restless, Lee rolled onto his back again. “Yes, I know. Doesn’t mean I wasn’t worried, or upset though…” he whispered, honestly, swallowing down the broken feeling that swelled in his throat, and hid it with a chuckle. “Confused Beauty more than anything.”

Nigel pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed, and stood up to pace as he watched the sun come up through the buildings of downtown Bucharest. “Shit. I’m sorry,” he whispered. He had never actually apologized to anyone before, Nigel refused to appear … weak, but the thought that he’d distressed Lee was … it was fucking painful. “I’m gonna take care of this, then I’ll come home as soon as I fucking can and make it up to both of you, alright? I fucking promise, and I  _ always _ keep my promises.”

“Nigel, it’s okay. Not the first time I’ve been alone. I’ll live for a bit longer.” He groaned though, palming down his own stomach. “But I am pretty restless without you. When you get home you might not get to leave for a long time, you’ll be too busy fucking me for a week.”

Nigel arched one eyebrow, instantly distracted, and sat on the bed, again, then laid back. “Restless already?” Nigel asked, his free hand on his own hip. “You’d better not be parading around in any of those pretty underthings without me.”

Lee bit his lip, stocking clad toes wiggling at the end of the bed. He’d put them on, in some sort of silly hope Nigel might just appear home anytime. His ass was clad in the frilly panties, these ones red and lacy. “And if I was?”

Nigel’s eyes narrowed at the thought, and his nails scratched at the denim over his own hip. “I’d wonder why the fuck you’re so dressed up when I’m away?”

“Hoping you’d surprise me and be here,” Lee sighed, and pressed his palm over his belly, down the front of the panties.

“You’re wearing them? Show me…” Nigel demanded, his heart beating a little faster.

Lee picked up the phone and turned on the camera and took a picture from his point of view,  a shot down his chest and stomach, to his crotch, covered in red lace. He sent the picture to Nigel. “Alright…”

Nigel looked at his phone and watched as the photo of Lee’s body, wrapped in red lace came up on the screen. He swore, aloud, and stared at it before he put the phone back against his ear with a long sigh. “All that just because you hoped I’d come home?” he asked, and ran his palm over the growing bulge in his jeans.

“Hoping and praying, and I don’t pray, Nigel,” Lee teased, eyes closed as he rubbed his palm over his growing erection. “Are you touching yourself to my picture, my bear?”

Nigel hummed, and smiled to himself as he stretched out on the bed, “who fucking wouldn’t? That ass of yours in lace? I’d have to be dead not to get a hard-on…”

“Wish I could taste you,” Lee purred, slipping his hand into his panties, past his balls, and hitched his hips up.

“Fuck,” Nigel groaned, and unzipped himself, then flicked the button open on his jeans. “Yeah? Would you take me into that soft, hot mouth of yours right away, or flick your tongue over my tip?”

“Tease you first. Tongue over the tip, slowly. Take you down, let you fuck my mouth.” Lee's breath picked up, the phone beside him on the bed, every movement he made picked up over the speaker. His fingers traced down over his pucker as a spread his legs a little more. “Wet you until I beg you to fuck me.”

Nigel could imagine the way Lee was moving, the hitching of his breath making the picture in his mind all too clear. “Yeah?” Nigel rumbled as he started to stroke his cock with one hand, still holding his phone with the other. “I’d turn you around and bend you over before I yanked your pretty little panties to the side and pushed my cock into that tight fucking ass of yours, Baby,” Nigel groaned.

Hips hitched into the air, Lee slid in one finger, eyes closed as he imagined Nigel there with him instead. “That perfect cock of yours, beating against my prostate… over and over…”

Nigel moaned aloud, able to imagine it as he stroked his own cock with almost desperate passion. “Beg for more,” Nigel groaned into the phone, his accent thicker when he became worked up like this.

Lee worked in another finger, rolling to his stomach as he pressed his hips into the bed, rutting against it as he fingered himself. “Please,  _ Daddy _ , harder…” Pools of pleasure coursed through him, making him moan into the spread where the phone sat.

“Are you fucking fingering yourself?” Nigel asked, his voice rough with breathless passion as he began to fuck his own fist.

“Yes-” Lee managed to get out not quite getting it in as hard as his husband and would, but he managed to stroke his prostate now and the. As his cock rubbed against the bed, over sensitive, and all too wanting. “Nigel…”

“Come on, Baby, come nice and hard, let me hear you…” Nigel demanded, with sweet roughness in his breathless voice as he jerked himself, hard. “Pretend it’s my cock …”

Breath wavering as Nigel’s voice whispered into his ear, Lee started to come to against the bed, inside his pretty little panties, panting and groaning, writhing for friction. “Nigel-”

Nigel listened, eyes closed, lips dropped open and groaned into the phone. His lower lip shook as he came, and hot, white come coated his hand, dripping down into the thick curls around the base of his throbbing cock. “Baby…”

“Fuck, Nigel…” Lee sighed, stroking the rest of his orgasm out, and then sighed, resting into their mattress. “I miss you.”

Nigel took a deep breath, and relaxed into the cheap bed under him. For a second, he expected to open his eyes and see Lee’s smiling, flushed face in front of him. Instead, all he saw was a cracked ceiling with stains on it, and a bare lightbulb hanging from a wire. “I miss you too, Baby, more than anything.”   
  
He wanted to scoop Lee into his arms and carry him to the shower, where they’d distract each other all over again.

Lee swallowed hard and picked up the phone and turned off speakerphone. He held it to his ear, letting go out a shaky breath. “I love you.”

“I love you too, so fucking much,” Nigel hummed, aware that he was covered in come now, and needed a shower. “It won’t take me long to take care of this mess, alright? I’ll be home before you fucking know it. Just don’t let anyone else see those goddamned lacy things on you, gorgeous …”

“Who is going to see me? I don’t wear them out.” Lee huffed, but there was a smile to his tone.

“Mhm, just making sure you don’t have any wild wino parties while I’m gone,” Nigel teased, and closed his eyes for a second. He’d never felt homesick before for the simple reason that he had never before had a real home to miss. The urge to get on a plane and fly back to Lee right now was so strong that it made Nigel’s entire chest ache, but if he did that, he’d have nothing but war on his hands, problems that could make it back to Lee.    
  
He had to take care of this, now, only then could he get home to Lee, and pick up where they’d left off. 

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I don’t throw parties.” Lee laughed, and rolled over and off the bed, shedding the soiled panties into the laundry hamper and tugged the stocking off to put away in the drawer.

“Well, not with me there,” Nigel sighed, and walked to the bathroom to clean himself off before he zipped up, and washed his hands with the phone pressed to his ear with his shoulder.

“So you think I throw parties when you’re not around?” Lee asked, hesitantly.

“We’ve been together since we met,” Nigel said, proudly, and started to slip on a holster for a gun around his shoulders while he talked. “I don’t know what you do when I’m gone. I’ve never been gone.”

The things Lee used to do were things Lee didn’t want to do now; he didn’t need to, he had Nigel. “I do the things I always do. Meditation, yoga, run, walk the dog, feed the dog, sleep.”

“You’re not bored?” Nigel asked, his hands pausing as he asked in the midst of slipping the guns into the hoster, then reached for his leather jacket where it had been flung on the end of the bed.

“It’s always a little more boring without you, my bear,” Lee whispered, lonesomely, leaning against the bathroom wall, phone to his ear.

Nigel wrestled his jacket on, and then his hat and shades, and hid the third gun in the top of his boot. “I know, baby. I won’t be too long. I just have to go talk to an old friend,” he said, and let himself out of the room, still on the phone with Lee as he walked through the narrow, dark hallway that smelled like smoke.

“Please be safe,” Lee said, finally feeling tired, though he wasn’t sure how well he’d sleep, going on day three without Nigel.

“I will, I’m always okay,” Nigel promised as he pushed the door open in the hotel lobby after he jogged down a flight of stairs, and headed out into the street. It had been home, once, but not anymore. Things had changed … or maybe he had changed.

“Okay.” Lee sighed heavily, swallowing. He tried not to fret. “You’re going now?”

“Yeah, on my way,” Nigel said as he waved his hand at a cab, and it pulled to the curb for him. “I love you, Baby, with all my fucked up heart. I’ll call in a couple hours, okay?”   
“Okay. I love you, too, Nigel. I’ll talk to you later,” Lee said, very quietly, and then hung up.


	2. Chapter 2

After attempting to sleep for five hours, Lee finally got up, dressed, and packed up a bag for him and Beauty. He called an Uber, being that he didn’t drive at all, and didn’t want to ask the guards out front for a ride, even if he knew they were following him. He arrived in Wolf Trap, Virginia hours later when the sun was gleaming over snowy pillows in the distance, and a thicket of woods beyond that. The door of the small house swung open and crowd of dogs raced out sniffing at Lee and Beauty.

“Lee?” called Will from the front porch, still in his pajamas, which were admittedly more than Lee wore to bed, but not by much.

“Hi… sorry I didn’t call first.” Lee walked up to the house, bag over one shoulder, but the closer her got, the more he realized Will didn’t look well, he looked sweaty and sticky, sickly even.

“I wouldn’t have heard it if you had,”Will answered, pushing the front door open for Lee, letting the dogs play in the banks of snow. Lee walked in, able to feel Will’s heat radiating off of him as he shuffled past.

“Are you okay?” Lee asked, carefully, knowing how private his brother could be.

“Uh, yeah. Little hung over,” Will murmured, padding back to the kitchen to get Lee a cup of coffee. “Where’s Nigel?”

“Out of town.”

Will hummed and handed Lee a mug of liquid sludge. Lee took it with raised brows, and added a lot of sugar from the container of it offered.

“Business?”

Lee nodded. “Yeah.”

One of the largest dogs, golden and fluffy with small freckles of dark brown and black on his face went to Lee to sniff at him, and nudged his legs, then seemed to try to lead him to Will, whimpering softly, like he was worried.

Lee pet the dog, and then moved forward where he was pressed, and laughed. “Your dogs are perceptive.”

The golden dog wagged, and stayed close to Will, looking up at him as he licked his hand where it rested on his leg.   
  
Lee’s phone finally rang, with Nigel’s number showing on the screen. Lee picked up immediately, giving an apologetic look to Will. “Nigel?”

“Hello, is this … Mister Lee, Nigel’s husband?” a voice Lee had never heard before said into the phone with a very thick Eastern European accent, a little different than Nigel’s. It sounded, from the noise in the background, like whoever was on Nigel’s phone was in a car.

“Yes…” Lee said, very quietly, going pale at the thought of why someone  _ else _ would be calling him. A million different scenarios played in his head at once. “Where is Nigel?”

“He is …” the man on the phone seemed to struggle for the right word, “in private doctor’s house. He tell me to tell you, husband, that … how he say?  _ Shit go bad _ .”

“Shit went bad?!” Lee exclaimed, exciting the dogs that had padded back into the house. Next to him, Will watched him carefully, wavering. “Is he okay? Is he dying?”

“No, no, no dying. He … his arm is shot,” the man said, and turned a corner in the car he drove. “I am Mihai, I .. clean, make nice after bad things happen. Mr. Nigel dropped his phone using the guns, sent me for it to bring to him and tell me to call you  _ very _ first thing.”

Lee would never get there in time. How would he get there? “And he’s going to be okay? Will you give him the phone to call me please when you see him, Mihai?”

“Yes, yes of course. He will be okay, we are … doctor is fixing. We are making a plane to come for him,” Mihai promised. “I am sorry for my English. I use the Duolingo, only few lessons.”

“You are doing fine. Just… get him back here, in the states, to me?” Lee asked, wondering if that was even possible, because the longer he stood by his brother, the more he realized just how much heat Will was radiating. He couldn’t leave him, Lee had a bad feeling.

The car stopped and there was the sound of a car door closing, another opening, and voices in Romanian. “One moment, Mr. Lee-”    
  
The voices spoke again, quickly and quietly, and Mihai handed the phone off.   
  
“Baby?” Nigel slurred, obviously heavily medicated.

“My bear, there you are,” Lee sighed, one hand over his eyes as he leaned into Will’s counter, very much feeling the weight of Will’s eyes on him.

“It … all went to Hell,” Nigel whispered, and looked at his arm where it lay on a table, being sewn back together. “But … I got it under control. Problem solved,” he sighed, almost … sadly. 

“Problem solved,” Lee repeated back, rubbing his palm down his face. “And you’re fine?”

“Yeah, Baby. Little bit fucking shot in the arm, but I’ll be home soon, okay? Heart’s still beating,” he assured Lee, though he sounded absolutely exhausted.

Lee looked over at Will, who was downing a few aspirin. Lee moved away from the counter, for privacy. “Okay. I’m at Will’s right now with Beauty. I’ve got a feeling he’s not doing well… so…”

“Will? Okay, we’ll fly there,” Nigel whispered into the phone, and looked at his arm, thought of taking a picture, then thought better. Lee should probably see it bandaged up, instead. “Sorry I didn’t call. It was a clusterfuck, Baby. I’ll explain when I see you. We’re going as soon as I’m stitched.”

“Okay. Maybe I should let you do that so you can come home to me sooner,” Lee offered, sweetly. He sighed. “I miss you and I love you. Please be safe this time.”

“Okay, I love you, Little Bird. No more fighting, just being high as fuck on a plane. Promise.” Nigel hung up.

Lee gave himself a minute before he turned back around to face his brother, but instead of finding Will where had been, Will slumped against the counter, shaking. “Will?” Lee went over to him, feeling his overly hot forehead and sweaty skin. He started to strip the shirt off of him.

“‘M fine,” Will murmured, but had no strength to push Lee off.

“Like hell, c’mon, bathtub, let’s get that fever down…”

***

Hours later, in the middle of the night, a car rolled up, and Nigel stepped out of the back of it, then walked to the door, and knocked. One of his arms was in a sling, and he carried something in his free hand.

The dogs were all alert, and a single light was on. Lee checked out the window of the door first and then  opened it, quietly. Will was finally asleep, fever broken for now, but he knew it’d be back. “Nigel…” he said, and hugged his husband, gently, afraid to hurt him.

Nigel hugged Lee back with one arm. He had a scrape over his left eye that went down to his cheek, and a cut lip as well as his injured arm, but he was alive, and holding Lee. That was all that fucking mattered now.  “There you are,” Nigel sighed, and kissed Lee’s lips, deeply.

Lee pressed his head into Nigel’s as they kissed, like he wanted to crawl right into him. Nearly four days was too long, much too long, to be without him. “I was so worried…”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry,” Nigel whispered. Lee was the only person who deserved apologies from him, and the only person who got them. He kissed Lee again, more softly, and wavered on his feet, still on heavy painkillers. “Not gonna leave again, Baby. I’m home.”

“C’mon, c’mon, get inside,” Lee said, and tugged his husband in, where it was warm and dark, and Will slept in his bed that happened to be in the living room. “Take the sofa there.”

Nigel stepped in, and handed Lee what was in his good hand, a bottle of red wine. “Here, I insisted we get you a bottle from my hometown before we flew,” he whispered, and crouched unsteadily to pet Beauty as she wagged and licked his face, overjoyed to see him. 

Lee took the wine and set it down, more worried about his husband. He helped him to the couch, stepping over dogs to get there. “Thank you, I’ll drink later when I’m not caring for the both of you.”

Nigel let Lee help him to the couch, and sat down, heavily, then pulled Lee into his lap as their chauffeur left the car for them and departed in a second car that pulled up for the task. “Holy shit he really does have a shitload of dogs,” Nigel sighed, nuzzling Lee’s throat.

“Yeah, seven of them,” Lee laughed, looking at them all, and Buster crawled up on the couch with them, wagging. “That’s Buster.”

Nigel petted the little dog, and looked over at Will. “What’s wrong with him?” he asked Lee, curiously, and leaned back against the understuffed cushions as he pushed one half of his jacket off. The other half was just draped over his injured arm.

“He’s had a fever off and on. Keeps seeing things and hearing things that aren’t there. I think it’s from the fever. Finally got it down, he’s out now, but it took some time and a little whiskey,” Lee explained,leaning into Nigel’s uninjured side, looking up at him.

“Did you touch him? Did he fucking cough on you?” Nigel asked, immediately concerned, even through the drugs.

“He doesn’t have a cough, or sniffles. None of that,” Lee said, trying to calm Nigel down. “It’s not a cold.”

“You could still catch whatever the fuck he has,” Nigel muttered, quietly, and looked at Will with a mixture of disgust and curiosity.

“I’m fine,” Lee said, watching Will’s form breathe in and out slowly. “I do think he needs a doctor, but I couldn’t drive him and he wouldn’t let me if I wanted to.”

“Well, that’s his own fucking fault, then,” Nigel whispered, but knew very well that Lee wasn’t going to just let Will stay sick in his care.

“He helped me, remember? When I was sick?” Lee mentioned, not one to let things like what Will had done for him go without reciprocation.

“Okay, okay,” Nigel agreed, and wrapped his good arm around Lee. “In the morning we’ll get him to see someone, alright?”

Lee nodded, letting his head rest against Nigel’s shoulder, and took in his familiar scent, drowning  in it. He was exhausted from worry and taking care of Will. “Okay.”

“No other bed to sleep in here?” Nigel asked, and pulled Lee to his chest. He was just glad to be back, glad to be with him again … no matter what had happened in Romania. 

“Nope,” Lee sighed and moved so that they laid down, and carefully curled his thinner body up and over Nigel’s good side. “You’ll just have to deal with me being close.”

Nigel chuckled, softly, and laid down with Lee snuggled into his side. “Fine by me, Baby,” he whispered, and stared at Lee’s face. It was lit by the moonlight that poured in through the window behind the couch, and he was … perfect. “Fucking glad I’m home.”

“Me fucking too,” Lee whispered, gazing at Nigel’s slightly mutilated face, and then kissed the spot. “I was going stir crazy without you.”

“Yeah? Three runs a day?” Nigel guessed, quietly, whispering back and forth with Lee while Will slept a few feet away and the dogs settled down in their beds.

“Yeah. Beauty loved it,” Lee chuckled, and snuggled his face into Nigel’s neck. “But that got boring fast, so I came here expecting to be turned away…”

“And he was sick…” Nigel sighed, and looked over at Will, then at Lee again, silent for a moment. “I found out who was targeting my men,” he said, quietly. He didn’t talk about work with Lee, but this was … more than work.

Lee had somehow known, without really knowing, that his twin was sick. It wasn’t luck, it was fate. Just as hate had brought Nigel to him.

Lee blinked and looked back at Nigel, brows furrowed. “Okay…”

“It was a guy, Darko, who had been my friend since we were kids. He ran clubs, he’s known me almost all my fucking life and he tried to take everything away from me,” Nigel sighed. “We had a few drinks, and that’s when he fucked up by naming the club across the street from where my guys were fucking shot. He wouldn’t have known that unless he was there.”

Lee palmed down Nigel’s chest softly, soothing. “Betrayed by the best friend?”

“He almost had me fucking fooled,” Nigel said, and looked at Lee, up close. “He shot me in the arm, had five other guys come in with guns … I shot them, then killed Darko the way a best friend who turns on you should be killed … up close, and slowly,” he said, staring into the distance for a moment, then kissed Lee’s forehead, gently. “Can’t trust anyone.”

“You can trust me,” Lee insisted, squeezing his husband gently, meaning every word. “You can always trust me.”

Nigel nuzzled Lee, and kissed his lips again, sweetly. “I know,” he whispered, and nuzzled Lee’s short hair as they snuggled together. 

Lee finally felt like he was winding down, and his eyes closed, snuggled tight against Nigel. “I’m glad you’re home, with me.”   
  
It felt like a nightmare that had ended, and Nigel closed both eyes, content for the first time in days. “Yeah, don’t ever want to leave again,” he confessed, lips against Lee’s short, soft hair as he started to sink into a deep sleep.

***

Sun fluttered through the window and Lee was still fast asleep against Nigel’s side, but someone was up and moving around, in the bathroom just down the hall, retching noises coming from it.

  
Nigel opened his eyes, and felt the throb of his injured arm, then Lee’s breath against his neck like a little fluttering creature. He very, very carefully tried to move out from under Lee without waking him to investigate the retching sound and get to his own pills in his jacket, which had fallen on the floor.

Lee, exhausted, rolled against the couch and Beauty, letting go of Nigel, breathing deep and soft, still very much asleep.

Nigel fished his pills out, and popped two in his mouth. He debated just going back to sleep, but remembered that Will had given Lee his bone marrow, he’d saved his life.    
  
Nigel headed down the hall, slowly and quietly, and looked in through the open door of the bathroom. “Hey…”

Will looked up, curls stuck to the side of his face, sweaty. “Oh. You’re here. Sorry to wake you,” Will murmured, one of his dogs on the floor with him as he leaned over the toilet. Will blinked, and for an instant he saw a wendigo outlined around Nigel, and then it was gone. He’d always thought Nigel was dangerous, the sort of dangerous someone like Lee couldn’t handle.

“Yeah, I’m here. While we’re stating the painfully fucking obvious, you’re heaving your guts out,” Nigel said, and leaned against the door frame. He wasn’t sure what was wrong with Will, but Lee was right, he looked awful. Will’s skin was ashy where it wasn’t flushed, and his curls were limp, dirty from sweat.

“This is the least of my problems,” Will sighed, flushing the toilet, and getting to his feet. He glowered a little at Nigel for just standing there, for having any piece of  pity for him, but there was that danger in Nigel that told him to not push.

Likewise, Nigel saw something in Will that glinted like a sharp blade in the dark, an edge inside him that Lee did not possess. Lee was strong, of course, but … Will had a simmering animosity to him that Nigel couldn’t look past. “Lee says you need a doctor.”  

“I’m surprised he said doctor and not a Shaman,” Will grumbled, using the counter to steady himself. “No offense.” Again, Nigel started to blur in and out, and things here seemed wrong, like this moment was supposed to be very different. He looked at Nigel, but  _ passed _ him, inside. “You…”

“You can’t even fucking stand up. Unless you’re wasted, you need a fucking doctor, Will,” Nigel said, evenly and firmly, and stepped closer. “We can go somewhere, or I’ll pay someone to come here.”

“It’s mental, I’m…” The world around Will blurred completely, like he was seeing in twos, two of everything, and everything was exactly the same except for Nigel, his double stood taller, posher, and neatly kept, and like a ghost image until Will blinked his eyes closed, and nearly dropped again. “You should have been different.”

Nigel blinked, and tilted his head at Will. “What the ever-loving fuck are you talking about?” he asked, and reached out to steady Will, hand on his shoulder, a snarl in his eyes at the insult.

“I see… I see two of you,” Will murmured, eyes closed, and even when he opened them again, both sets of eyes stared at him. He swallowed hard. Maybe he did need help.

“Okay, come on, let’s go back and get someone to come look at you. Maybe your eyes are going, or something,” Nigel sighed, and helped Will out of the bathroom, slowly, still very aware of that … shadow in him. He was much darker than Lee, especially like this, reactive like the ingredients for a bomb stored too close together for comfort.

Will shuffled out and sat on the bed, the dogs around him, and he looked up at Nigel. “Do wendigos mean anything to you?”

“What? Those … Australian dogs that eat babies?” Nigel asked, confused, as he made Will sit down, and sat on the edge of the end table beside the bed so they could talk and he wouldn’t wake Lee.

“No, a Native American -- Algonquian-- folklore mostly. Eats people,” Will shook his head, waving it off. “I’m seeing things, I… it’s probably not real.”

“A monster who eats people?” Nigel asked, and swallowed before he licked his split lip, and spoke again. “That’s what you see when you look at me?”

Will shook his head, eyes closed as he hunched over, head in his hands. “Not exactly. Just near you, around you. Comes and goes, like a flicker.”“Are you taking drugs?” Nigel asked, bluntly and seriously.

“What? No.” Will sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. There was something very wrong with him, and he hated to think it was all very psychological.

“Then you need a fucking doctor,” Nigel said, gruffly, and went to the sink to get a glass of water for Will. He came back and handed the glass off to Will. “What the fuck is that smell?”

Will took the glass and nodded, finally starting to see that maybe he did need help. He drank the water down, and shook his head. “What smell? The dogs?”

“No,” Nigel said and smelled Will’s ear. “Like fucking wires melting…”

Will looked around, but he wasn’t sure he had anything that smelled like that. Actually, he didn’t smell anything. “I’m not sure…”

“You need a fucking shower,” Nigel grunted, and shook his head like he was trying to get rid of the smell. “I’ll make eggs.”

He went to start the shower for Will, and threw a towel at him before he went to the kitchen and started to rummage around.

Will got up and wandered to the shower slowly, and then shut the door. Lee peeked over his shoulder at Nigel and then got up, Beauty at his feet. He stretched and yawned, and wrapped his arms around Nigel’s waist from behind.

“Mornin’.”

Nigel was making breakfast, and looked over his shoulder, at Lee. “Hey, baby.”

“Will’s up?” Lee asked, having heard part of the conversation but without context, he didn’t really follow.

“Your brother is fucking sick. His head smells like a melting engine and he was puking his guts out when he woke up,” Nigel sighed.

“So you put him in the shower?” Lee chuckled a little and kissed Nigel’s neck. “I know he’s sick. We can make him go today when he’s out.”

“Breakfast, then the doctor. He doesn’t have bacon, we’re having sausage and eggs,” Nigel muttered, irritated.

"Sausage is fine,” Lee murmured, kissing Nigel’s jaw and went to grab three plates down to put all the food on when Nigel was finished.

“Do people sweat a lot with cancer?” Nigel asked, as he browned the sausage and scrambled eggs.

“Sometimes, if they’ve gotten sick from it, a fever can be really bad,” Lee explained, and looked at Nigel. “I don’t… I mean, you think he has cancer?”

“Well you fucking had it, and you’re twins,” Nigel said, as he poured a little cream in with the eggs.

“That’s true, but…” Lee wasn’t sure, all he knew was they had to get Will to the doctor.

“Wanna make coffee, gorgeous?” Nigel asked as the fluffy golden dog tried to stick his nose near the sausage pan, with big, hopeful eyes.

Seeing one dog do it, the others came in, wagging. Lee laughed as he made the coffee, carefully scooping it out where he knew Will just eyeballed it to his liking.

“Where the fuck is their food? Are they all.hungry?” Nigel asked, laughing at the little scrappy one, who was trying to climb the front of the stove.

Lee laughed and got into the fridge to get out the homemade food Will made for them, and started to scoop it out into the bowls, and then brought some to Beauty who waited patiently. “Yeah, probably. He makes their food.”

“On the stove? I thought Beauty was spoiled,” Nigel muttered, and turned the sausages in the pan.

“Yes, I do,” Will said from the hall, dressed, but still looking peakish. Lee went over and helped Will to the table.

Nigel watched as the dogs abandoned him for their food and set to chomping it down, happily. “Feel any better?”

“No,” Will admitted, and took the water Lee handed him to gulp down. “My head is throbbing.”

Nigel stepped closer and smelled Will, the way a wolf might smell another wolf, then wrinkled his nose. “Smell is still there, like your brain is fucking melting.”

“You don’t know that!” Lee exclaimed, looking offended for Will, but Will touched Lee’s arm to have him settle down.

“It might be, my head’s been feeling like it’s on fire for weeks.”

“What?” Nigel asked his husband, hands spread in an expression of innocence, “that’s what it fucking smells like.”

“I don’t smell anything,” Lee said, and looked at Will, then back to his husband. “How do you know what a brain melting smells like?”

“I can just smell things, okay? And … you don’t want to fucking know how I know,” Nigel said, then went back to breakfast, and tossed the sausage in with the eggs, added a little cheese and put everything on plates, then brought it to the table.

Lee shut up with that and sat there with Will, hands in his lap, clearly worried. He’d wanted a brother forever, and now he had Will, but Will… didn’t seem to want him as much. Lee forked at his eggs and little and Will sort of stared at it.

“Not hungry?” Nigel asked with a sigh. Of course both of them were now put off food. Lee was sensitive and Will was … sensitive would be a stupid thing to call him, Nigel had the feeling that under his introverted shell, Will was all barbed wire inside. 

Will picked up his fork politely and ate a few bites, knowing he had to get something down. Lee had a few bites as well but stood and let the dogs out instead, going with them, leaving Nigel and Will in the house, awkwardly.

Nigel watched his husband, and sighed. “I guess I offended him … but not you,” he said, as he took a bite of his own eggs and sausage.

“He lives in a protective little shell where you’ve kept him,” Will pointed out, knowingly, and ate a few more bites and then sipped the coffee Lee made, admittedly better than his own. “You can’t expect him to understand what you don’t share.”

“I don’t share it for a reason,” Nigel sighed, and looked after Lee, through the back door. Beauty had gone with him, of course, she’d bark if he needed anything.

“Then don’t snap at him when he doesn’t understand.” Will was protective in his own way, and he couldn’t help the bond he had with his twin, especially when they were around each other, things just seemed easier.

“I didn’t snap,” Nigel said, but looked after Lee again, wondering if … maybe he might have snapped.    
  
Fuck. He probably snapped.   
  
Nigel stood up and followed Lee with a heavy sigh.

Lee was throwing snowballs at the dogs, in his pajamas and slippers.

Nigel sighed, went back in, got his coat, and went back out after his husband, coat in his good hand. He walked up, behind Lee, and put his leather coat on his husband from behind, wrapping him in it’s warmth and the smell of Nigel’s cologne. “I wasn’t trying to insult him.”

Lee sighed, turning his face to look at Nigel. “I know.” Lee wrapped his arms around Nigel’s waist and nestled into him.

Nigel hugged Lee with his good arm, and kissed his forehead. “I just say what comes to my mind. Will’s not offended, Baby,” Nigel assured his husband as he held him, wrapped up in the jacket that was too big on him as the dogs chased each other around them, like a tornado of fur.

“Do you really know what melted brain smells like?” Lee asked, honestly. He never asked often, it was easier to be ignorant, but as long as they had been together now, he felt like sometimes he needed an in.

Nigel paused, and looked at Lee, then nodded. “Yeah,” he said, simply, but more quietly than he would have to anyone else. “Not fucking pleasant, not easy to forget.”

“Do you hide a lot of things from me?” Lee wrested his fingers in Nigel’s shirt, looking up at him.

“The ugly things,” Nigel said, quietly, and swallowed hard as they looked at one another. He twisted the fingers of his good hand in the back of the leather jacket Lee wore. “I’m not … hiding them, they’re things I don’t think you want to know. Things I’ve had to do in the past, things for business … it’s not a pretty world.”

“You don’t want me tainted by it,” Lee said, quietly. He understood, and honestly, what would he do with that knowledge?

“It leaves a stain, my head is already a mess with it. No need to do the same to yours, what’s done’s been done. I do what I have to do, not more, not less,” Nigel said, honestly, and remembered Darko … the way he’d died. It had been necessary, every second of it. He wouldn’t have done that to anyone who hadn’t committed such a deep betrayal. A bullet to the head was quick enough, got the job done. Darko had required  _ more _ than that. 

Nigel kissed Lee’s forehead, then his lips, softly, and rested their faces together. “You’re not afraid of me, are you?”

“No. You have never treated me like anyone you despised,” Lee whispered, swallowing, as cherished being back in Nigel’s arms, more than aware of his complete attachment.

“No, and I never fucking would, no matter what. Even if you broke my fucking heart, I wouldn’t hurt you, okay?” Nigel promised, softly. If Lee was ever just with him out of fear … he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. “Gabi broke my heart, I didn’t hurt her. I have fucking standards.”

“Do you think I would ever do that to you?” Lee asked, brushing their lips together slowly.

“I’ve never cared about a single person who didn’t, one way or another,” Nigel said, quietly, and rested his nose against Lee’s perfect nose, just breathing. “But … maybe you’re going to be the first.”

“We’re never parting,” Lee promised, “It was Hell without you.”

“Yeah, it was Hell without you,” Nigel agreed, and kissed Lee on the lips, his injured arm pressed between them as their lips melded and joined, and Nigel’s tongue brushed against Lee’s, warm and coaxing.

Lee hummed against his mouth, kissing him back slowly, even if they couldn’t quite get as close as he wanted to right now. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Nigel whispered, and looked down at his arm, then at Lee. “Could have been worse.”

“I don’t want worse,” Lee chuckled, shaking his head. He’d never ask Nigel to stop what he’s doing, it’s Nigel’s life and all he knows, just as meditation and yoga is all Lee knows, paired with his wine.

“No,” Nigel laughed, and kissed Lee again, his good arm tight around Lee’s back. “No, me neither.” He was not going to tell Lee how close it got to worse.

“I need you,” Lee confessed, aware that he used to not need anyone.

Nigel smiled at that, and rested their foreheads together. “Need you too, baby. I’m not going to let anyone take me away, we’re going to die together when we’re ninety something, drunk and naked on a beach, fucking. It’s going to be a hell of a thing for some jogger to find.”

Lee smiled brighter at that, laughing, crinkles around his eyes. “I can’t wait.”

Nigel kissed him again, slowly, and nipped at Lee’s lower lip before he looked into his bright blue eyes. “Fucking love you.”

Lee cupped Nigel’s face and kissed him. “I fucking love you.”

“We should go get your crazy-assed brother to a hospital,” Nigel sighed.

“Can you even drive?” Lee asked, brows raised at his husband and touched his hurt arm. Lee didn’t have a license and Will was in no state to do it himself.

“Yeah, I can fucking drive with one arm,” Nigel nodded, and headed back inside with Lee. 

Lee gave Nigel a coy a look. “Mhm.”

“I can. As long as I don’t have to shift, I’ll be fine,” Nigel said, and opened the door for Lee, then whistled sharply for the dogs, who ran toward them, tails wagging. They bumped their noses together as they ran, obviously well-bonded and closely-knit.

Beauty ran right to Lee and Nigel, and leaned against Lee, affectionately. She was shy, even if she was easily the largest dog there.

Lee pet their dog and lead them inside, and to Will who was leaned up against the chimney, like he was listening for something.

“Will?”

“Can you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Nigel asked, with concern as he kept Lee back and took a step closer to Will, listening.

“There’s something--an animal--stuck in here…” Will said, going to grab a large sledge hammer he’d obviously brought in when they were outside with the dogs.

“Whoa, whoa-” Nigel said, and held out his hand to stop Will before he went to the fireplace and listened, then looked at Will. “There’s nothing in here, I don’t fucking hear anything. We’re taking you to a doctor.”

Lee moved forward to take the hammer from Will and set it down again. “Please, Will. You’re sick.”

Will only nodded, slowly realizing everything that had happened, his conversation with Nigel before. Lee gathered his clothes to get dressed and quickly came back tugging on his boots and then helped Will into his coat, and lead him out to the car.

Nigel pulled keys out of his pocket, unlocked the car and let Will in the back seat, watching him closely. “Do you hear anything else in the walls? Voices talking to you?”

“Noises,” Will said, quietly, looking at his hands, head starting to ache all over again. Lee slipped into the front passenger seat, giving Nigel a look.

“Noises like what?” Nigel asked, as he started to drive with one hand, frowning a little back at Will. 

“Animals, strangled, hurt…” Will looked down at his hands, something was very amiss with this situation, and he had a foreboding feeling of loss and yet peace all at once.

“Sick?” Nigel guessed as they kept driving in the sleek, smooth car.

“Maybe,” Will whispered, and Lee turned around in his seat to look at his twin, and then back at his husband. Will seemed distant now, lost in his own head.

“Maybe your brain is just trying to tell you how sick you are. You hear these animals suffering, maybe that’s  _ you _ suffering,” Nigel said, after thinking it over.

“Could be.”

“Probably is,” Lee said, interjecting a little. “Maybe try just closing your eyes, focusing on you and not the things around you ,Will. A deep breath in slowly through your nose, out through your mouth.”

“Are you making him meditate?” Nigel asked, whispering to his husband under his breath.

Lee shot Nigel a look, and then back to his brother, who was actually doing as Lee said, anything he supposed to get his body to relax and mind to declutter the best it could. “Nothing wrong with trying something  _ new _ .”

Nigel just shook his head and kept driving. “Tricking someone into meditating… what would Buddha say?” he whispered.

“It’s not tricking when they follow it and realize it’s helping,” Lee whispered back a tad bitterly.

Nigel just shrugged his good shoulder as they headed toward the nearest city. “Just saying,” he murmured, and looked in the rear view mirror at Will. They had to help him. Will had saved Lee’s life, after all, given him a chance to be here. Nigel was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a man who  didn’t repay his debts.

Will was quiet, hopefully asleep for the rest of the ride, and the whole car went into solitude for now. Once at the hospital, Lee opened the back and helped Will out, seeing as Lee was the only one not injured or hurt.

Nigel climbed out after parking, and noticed Will looked worse than ever. “Can you walk?” he asked, skeptically. Will looked like a strong wind would blow him over.

“I got it,” Will murmured as Lee got up and under his shoulder to help him through the door, and by then a nurse had seen him and ordered someone get him a wheelchair, which Lee lowered him down into.

Nigel went to the front desk and told them why Will was here, then took his insurance forms and brought them to Will, he looked it over, checked off that it was all to be paid for privately and took a credit card out of his wallet, wrote the number down, and handed it back before returning to Will. “This is on us,” he said, solidly, as a nurse guided them to a private room for Will.

In no room to argue, Will merely looked at Lee and Nigel, sweat pouring down his face again, through his clothes. They followed into the room, where Will was given a gown to change into, and Lee helped him out of boots.

Nigel turned his back, out of respect, and let Lee help his brother into the gown as he dialed a number with one hand, and spoke into the phone, in Romanian, then hung up.    
  
Someone knocked at the door, and a doctor opened it. He was older, white haired, portly, wearing glasses, and followed by a couple of younger residents, carrying clipboards. “Mr. Graham, I’m Dr. Brits, what brings you here today?”

Lee stiffened  _ for _ his brother, having to be seen with all the medical students. Will was in the bed though, looking worse by the second. Lee spoke up for him. “He’s sick. Hearing things, fever, vomiting. He says his brain feels like it’s on fire.”

“Hearing things?” the Doctor asked as he waved a nurse in to record Will’s vitals. She put a thermometer in his mouth and took his blood pressure to begin with, working quietly while the doctor shone a light in Will’s eyes. “What sort of things are you hearing, Will?”

“Distressed animals,” Will murmured, quietly, swallowing down his dry throat, barely even aware of the nurse near him as Lee stayed close.

“I see,” the doctor said, as he made a note on Will’s chart. “Are you seeing anything unusual? Anything you can’t explain?” The nurse showed the Doctor Will’s vitals, and he nodded, waving them away as he reached closer to feel Will’s lymph nodes in his neck with both hands.

“Yes. Doubles of people, but it’s not them. Shadowy figures… not really there,” Will whispered, realizing how delusional he sounded.

The doctor pointed at an eye chart against the opposite wall. “Can you see those letters clearly? Do you see any of them in double?” the doctor asked, with a little frown.

Nigel watched closely, his good hand against Lee’s back.

“Yes, it’s all clear. Nothing is double.” Will sighed, heavily, aware that his secret about the glasses to his brother and his brother’s husband was out now-- he didn’t really need them.

“But you see doubles of other things? Like people who aren’t really there?” the doctor asked, in a knowing tone.

“Yes, exactly.” Will let out a long, irritable sigh, to which Lee touched his arm to calm him.

“Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental illness before, Mr. Graham?” the doctor asked, and showed the nurse his clipboard. She nodded and walked out.

“No,” Will snarled. “I’ve seen a lot of doctors and therapists. I have an… empathy disorder, I’m not mentally unstable.”

“Well, we’re going to get a psychiatrist to come in here and have a talk with you. Seeing things and hearing things at your age is more likely a mental issue than anything else,” the doctor said, with a sigh, and closed Will’s chart with a snap.

Lee lit up like a match, getting the doctor’s face before he could leave. “He has a fever! He was vomiting! Actual illness of the brain, that isn’t mental, can cause all that, too. So why don’t you do your fucking job and get him an MRI!”

The doctor and the students all looked at Lee with wide eyes. Nigel just smiled, and stood behind his husband with a hard look at the doctor.    
  
“I … I beg your pardon, sir. I’m a  _ doctor _ and-” the doctor started.   
  
“And I’m fucking paying you,” Nigel interrupted, coolly. “Paying you pretty fucking well, too. Now, I can either pay you to take care of him, or I can pay someone else to take care of him. Maybe I’ll pay them double what I would have paid you… who knows? Maybe one of these guys here…” Nigel said, nodding at the students.   
  
“These are residents, they are not yet experts-” the doctor began, sputtering and angry.   
  
“The way I see it, there are  _ no _ experts here,” Lee almost snarled at the doctor, livid and red in face. “Either get him the care he deserves or leave we’ll take the chances on one of your residents, whom I’m sure need to pay off college loans.”

“Yeah, actually … get the fuck out,” Nigel said, darkly, and locked eyes with the old, flushed doctor who had never been so disrespected in all his life. 

“I-”   
  
“GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE-” Nigel thundered, and the doctor left, slamming the door behind him.   
  
“Alright, one of you-” Nigel said, “take a look at him. Anyone who can tell me what’s going on with him and get him treatment, I’ll pay off your fucking loans. I’m not kidding.”   
  
The students looked at each other, shocked, and one of them stepped closer to pick up the chart the doctor dropped, reading it. “His temperature is dangerously high, blood pressure getting low, heart rate is twice what it should be. Any family history of cancer?” she asked, in a timid voice.   
  
“Yes,” Lee said, quieter now, but still shaking a little with anger, calming quickly as he used his own techniques to calm down. “I had cancer.”

The female resident had bushy brown hair that was twisted back, and glasses. She tilted her head at Will, and took his pulse at his neck, very gently. “I think you need a neurologist, it’s what I’m going to specialize in, but I’m not quite there yet. I’ll get my mentor in here to look at you, if you’d like. So far, I’d say this could be meningitis, a tumor in the brain, or encephalitis. Either way, we need a sample of your CSF to look for infection and we need to get you an MRI, like your brother suggested.”

“Any one of those sounds terrible,” Will murmured, swallowing, but he honestly didn’t care which it was, just as long as they could fix it, or something.

“Whatever you need to do,” Lee said.

“Of course, in the meantime, would you like some ice water?” she offered, while another student darted out to get a jug and a cup for Will, and returned with them while the clever resident with bushy hair texted someone on her phone. “Just getting my mentor here, she’ll be just a couple minutes.”

“Hey … um, get him to draw the clock-” one of the young men suggested quietly, from the back of the group.

“Clock thing?” another asked, as they all scrounged for a blank sheet of paper, and gave it and a pen to the lead student, who gave it to Will.    
  
“Good idea. Mr. Graham, can you draw a clock for us? Please?” she asked, politely.

Will made a face but Lee encouraged with a little nudge, and Will sighed, drawing a clock that seemed like it was normal to him, but Lee watched him with a side look to Nigel. Will handed it back.

“There. A clock.”

The resident took Will’s picture, and looked at it, then nodded at him with a little smile. “Okay, thank you, I think we know how to proceed now. One second,” she said, and showed the others, whose eyes widened a little before she stepped out to meet her advisor.    
  
“What the fuck does that mean?” Nigel asked, confused.

“It’s just a clock,” Will said, blinking at Lee.

Lee sighed. “It was… distorted, Will.”

The resident came back, with an older woman in tow, who looked at Will, and his chart. “Will, I’m Dr. Foster. Nice to meet you. I’d like to get you to the MRI suite right now, we’re going to do a couple of scans. How are you feeling right now?” she asked, and the residents took the brakes off of Will’s bed, eager to help out with the case.

“Terrible,” Will said, monotone in voice as he watched the residents, and then looked at Lee and Nigel, who was starting to fade into a wendigo again.

“I’m sure you are,” the doctor said, and patted his shoulder as they wheeled Will out. “We’ll have him back soon, with results,” she promised.    
  
Nigel stared back at Will, able to see him staring the way he’d stared at him the night before.    
  
The residents followed Will, and the door closed, softly. “That’s the first time I’ve seen you fucking lose your temper,” Nigel said, proudly, to Lee.

“It takes a lot to piss me off,” Lee sighed, not one to just let out his feelings like that so freely when they could be damaging, but his brother was at stake here.

Nigel hugged Lee from behind with one arm, his head against Lee’s. “You were protecting him.”

“He could protect himself,” Lee said, softer, knowing that Will usually could.

“Maybe when he’s well, but not like this,” Nigel said, knowingly, and kissed Lee’s cheek. “You’re a good brother.”

“Yeah?” Lee looked back at Nigel, leaning against him a little, arms crossed over his chest. “He’d do the same, I think.”

“Yeah, something like that,” Nigel said, thinking it over. “I think he’d kill someone to protect you,” he said, bluntly. “He’s got it in him.”

“What?” Lee turned in Nigel’s arm, and gazed at him, openly.  “You think Will would kill someone?”

Nigel sighed, and shifted his jaw as he thought about it. “Baby, if I couldn’t look in a man’s eyes and tell whether or not he had it in him to pull a fucking trigger, I would never have lived to meet you. I think he could off someone, yeah. He’s a dark motherfucker. I dunno how I know, I just  _ know _ .”

Lee blinked at Nigel, but nodded. They didn’t  _ really _ know Will, and as innocent as he seemed with the dogs and the cabin, maybe it was just covering for something deeper. “You could be right…”

“I’m not saying he’s a bad guy, I like him, he’s alright … but he’s not the mild mannered fisherman everyone fucking thinks he is,” Nigel sighed, and kissed Lee again. 

Lee smiled at that, considering that was exactly what Will wanted people to see, a nice veneer to keep out the questions. “Shiny little set of armor he has, hm?”

“It works for him, everyone needs something to show the normal people, keep them off his case,” Nigel murmured, and sat in a chair, pulling Lee into his lap. It was hard to believe they hadn’t even been home yet.

“I don’t know what it’s like to be like… that,” Lee shrugged, resting his head against Nigel’s. “Thank you for helping.”

“He helped you,” Nigel said, as though that explained all of it. He had a code, and he stuck to it. “No, you don’t know. You just … are who you fucking are. I love that.”

Lee kissed Nigel for that. “It’s why we work.”

“Why? Because neither of us hide anything?” Nigel asked, his arm curled around Lee’s back, cradling him.

“It helps.” Lee chuckled, and enjoying their quiet moment while Will was getting better care.

“I’d be shit at hiding anything,” Nigel chuckled, unable to imagine a life where he had to pretend to be anything he wasn’t. “Thank fucking god you like me the way I am.”

“Thank whatever god, you are who you are,” Lee murmured, gazing at his husband, less worried now as the tension rolled off him. Nigel just shook his head at that, and looked at his phone. “Sure…”

“Expecting a call?” Lee asked, watching Nigel.

“Messaged my assistant about getting Will a nurse if he goes home, someone who can look after him,” Nigel murmured, and tossed his phone on the table next to them. 

"If he has any one of those things, I don’t know if they’ll let him go home right away,” Lee pointed out, hoping it was something quickly curable.

“Well, who fucking knows,” Nigel sighed, and cracked his neck as he stretched it from side to side with a heavy sigh. “He saved your life. We owe him.”

“True,” Lee said, letting out a heavy sigh of his own. He knew, even if Nigel didn’t say much, that he came close to losing his husband, who knows how close to losing Will too.

Nigel settled his arm around Lee’s back, and rested his head against Lee’s. It had been a rough week, and that was an understatement. Nigel had worried Lee enough with it. “If he needs to stay in the hospital, we’ll pay for it, if he can go home, we’ll get him someone to help.”

“But you know he doesn’t strangers,” Lee pointed out, arms around Nigel’s waist the best he could manage.

Nigel looked at Lee, thinking over the look on his face. “You’d want him at our place,” Nigel said, decisively. He knew the way Lee’s mind worked. He didn’t have to ask.

“That or we stay with him. We’d have to bring all the dogs to our place,” Lee said, knowingly.

Nigel gave Lee a look, and sighed, heavily. “All, what, six of them? Fuck …” Nigel scrubbed his hand through his silvery hair, and frowned. “Are we going to sleep on the couch the whole time?”

“Seven.” Lee nuzzled Nigel’s jaw. “I’ll convince him to let us make use of the bedroom up stairs?”

Nigel grunted, not thrilled with the idea, but … it was better than having eight fucking dogs at their place. Will’s place was isolated enough to be safe without heavy security. “Fine.”

After all Will had done and taken care of Beauty for them, Lee felt it was the least they could do. “Thank you.” He kissed Nigel’s lips softly.

Nigel smiled a little at the kiss, and sighed. There was a hell of a lot he’d put up with for Lee’s sake, even the possibility of living in Buttfuck, Virginia with a pack of dogs and not much else so they could look after Lee’s creepy twin. “No problem.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” Lee promised, even if they weren’t even sure that’s what they would have to do yet. The results weren’t back yet.

“Yeah? Making it up to me? Okay,  _ how? _ ” Nigel asked, with one raised, perfect eyebrow as he tilted his head at his husband. The light caught his cheekbone, illuminating it just  _ so _ .

“All the blowjobs you want?” Lee suggested, though it was hardly something that put him out, he enjoyed doing it.

“I already get all the blowjobs I want,” Nigel reminded him with a smirk in his eyes.

“You also get all the sex you want. What have I got left to offer?” Lee asked, canting his head to look at Nigel.

“I … like back rubs,” Nigel confessed, softly, before the door opened to the room, and Will was pushed back in, still in bed, hooked up to more equipment this time.    
  
“Well, our MRI was conclusive,” the doctor said, holding Will’s chart, followed by the residents. “Auto-immune encephalitis.”

“And… what does that mean?” Lee asked, one hand on Nigel’s back, his fingers kneading into the muscle there.

“That your brother’s body has declared war on his brain, so to speak. His immune system is attacking it, as though it were an invader. That is why he’s hallucinating, why he’s running fevers, seizures, all of it. It’s quite lucky we found it, it’s easy to miss on a normal MRI, but our team decided-” she said, looking at the residents, “that it was important to exclude as a diagnosis. They were correct. Mr. Graham will need to stay here with us a week, and can likely be discharged home for the rest of his recovery with support.”

“Seizures?” Lee exclaimed, looking at Will. Obviously his brother had left a few things out, or hadn’t known. “We’re going to care for him in his home when he goes.”

“They’re very common with this disorder,” the doctor said, to comfort Lee as she raised the head of Will’s bed for him. “We’re going to start the medication, and he should feel an improvement in his symptoms within fourty-eight hours, by a conservative estimate.”

“This … whatever the fuck it is … is it contagious?” Nigel asked, concerned.    
  
“No, not in the least,” one of the residents assured him with a shake of her head.    
  
“He’s just worried about me being around sick people,” Lee said, and patted Nigel’s shoulder, reassuringly.   
  
“He had cancer, it was bad,” Nigel muttered, under his breath.   
  
“There is no chance at all of anyone catching this from Mr. Graham,” the older doctor assured Nigel, solidly, to which he nodded, and looked at Will, who looked emaciated and pale in his bed.    
  
“So … we just leave him here? Go home?” Nigel asked, it was strange to just … leave. He didn’t care about Will, of course, but it was an odd feeling to be so involved in the mystery of what had been making him act insane, only to stop, abruptly, … now.

“We aren’t that far from here,” Lee said, since they drove Will all the way to the hospital in Jersey where they lived, the best hospital he knew of with the students and everything. “We can come back and check on him later after he’s feeling better.”

“What about the dogs?” Nigel asked, in a whisper against Lee’s ear, as though he didn’t want Will to hear that he’d thought about them. “Maybe they should just … fucking come to our place … it’s big,” Nigel sighed.   
  
Maybe he could make some of the security guys walk them…

“Are you sure? They seem well behaved,” Lee pointed out, quietly, even if Will couldn’t hear them.

Nigel just sighed and nodded, “They can have dog beds in your meditations rooms, or whatever,” he muttered, softly, and stroked the back of Lee’s neck with one hand, fondly.

“How will I meditate with dogs in there?” Lee asked, though really the room was much bigger than he needed anyway. “Nevermind, I’ll do it outside.”

“It’s a test from the great Buddha. He’s testing your skills,” Nigel joked, with no idea at all how Buddha worked. For all he knew Buddha was basically the same as mostly naked Santa Claus.

Lee blinked at his husband, arms folded over his chest, and simply didn’t answer. He turned back to the doctors. “He’ll be okay if we run out for a few hours and get his dogs and stuff?” “Yes, we’ll move him to his room-” the doctor said.

“ _ Private _ room,” Nigel requested, as he gently guided Lee off of his lap so that he could stand up.   
  
“Private room, and you can ask for his room number when you call or come back,” she assured them.

“Thank you,” Lee said, reaching behind him to take Nigel’s good hand. “We won’t be gone long if he comes to before then, let him know we’ll be back.”

Will was asleep in his bed, utterly exhausted. Nigel took the resident who had give the right diagnosis’s name and number and promised he’d be in touch, then patted the side of Will’s bed. It looked a lot like Lee in the hospital bed… which made Nigel’s heart twist in his chest.

“Of course,” the doctor said with a nod, and let Will’s family say goodbye to him before they left.

Lee sat with Will for a moment, and leaned over to whisper a few things to him, and then stood, seeing how unresponsive Will was being, which was normal. He took Nigel’s hand. “Okay, sooner we go the sooner we can get back.”

Nigel nodded, and stepped out with Lee, headed toward the car. “He’ll be okay, they know what’s wrong now. They’re not just going to lock him up with a bunch of fucking crazies…” He unlocked Lee’s door and held it open for him.

“Like that one doctor wanted to do,” Lee muttered, still bitter about that. “Do you think it’d be right to report him? He could have killed Will.”

Nigel got in the car, and closed the door, then started it up and looked at Lee. “We could do more than report him … if you wanted…” he offered, with well-placed emphasis on the words, all but offering the power of the empire he’d built for his husband to use, if Lee wanted revenge for what that doctor wanted to do to Will.

Lee looked back at his husband, well aware of the boundaries he was crossing if he agreed to anything. “What do you think?”

“That’s up to you, Baby, but if someone fucks with family ... “ Nigel just shook his head as they rove. “Depends what you want. The guy was a fucking asshole.”

“What goes around comes around eventually,” Lee sighed, not sure he could consciously make that choice, and live with it.

“Well, let me know,” Nigel said, loyally, and took Lee’s hand in his own for a second, then took the wheel again and kept driving back to Will’s place. “Are you worrying about Will?”

“Yes. Aren’t you?” Lee asked, knowingly, giving Nigel a look that suggested he saw the way he cared, even if Nigel didn’t think so.

“Maybe…” Nigel muttered, and shifted his jaw. “Maybe not.”

“It’s okay to care about people,” Lee said, touching Nigel’s arm gently. “I promise it won’t kill you.”

Nigel chuckled at that and focused on the road. He thought about Lee at his sickest, about Darko trying to take everything from him, from under his fucking nose … “Hasn’t yet, I guess.” Nigel’s hand tightened on the wheel.

Lee canted his head toward Nigel, watching him. “You are resilient, I know you won’t let caring about Will take you down.”

“Except for you, people are pieces of shit,” Nigel said, bluntly, his walls up.

“But Will is part of me, sorta. He’s my brother, my  _ twin _ .” Lee sat back and looked out the window, he couldn’t make Nigel open.

“He’s your twin, but he’s not you,” Nigel mused. Will was strangely likable, dark, but that was hardly a problem for Nigel. Was Will a trustworthy man? That remained to be seen. 

“We are different, opposites,” Lee agreed, shrugging slim shoulders. Where Lee was light and talkative, Will was dark, and quiet. It wasn’t hard to see the looming softness of peril that could easily take Will over.

“Yeah, you are,” Nigel agreed, and looked at his husband with a little smile. “I like you better.”

Lee laughed. “I should hope you do,” he added, coyly.

Nigel laughed, quietly, “We’ll load all the fucking dogs in here, and drive home- it’ll be our own goddamned zoo.”

“Will they all fit in here?” Lee asked, mostly to himself, considering Will had a big truck for his dogs.

“Probably not. You’ll have three small ones on your lap,” Nigel grumbled. “We could strap one to the roof,” he joked, dryly.

Lee rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell Will.”

“Not Beauty, this is her fucking car,” Nigel said, under his breath.    
  
The rest of the drive took hours, and Nigel parked the car outside of Will’s house, then stretched when he climbed out. His arm was throbbing, the painkillers had worn off completely by now. 

“You okay?” Lee asked, sympathetically, watching his husband. “Do you need me to  _ try _ to drive?”

Nigel gave Lee a look, eyebrows raised. “Have you  _ ever _ driven a car, Baby?”

“Once,” Lee admitted, shrugging. “When I was sixteen.” It was when his parents tried to teach him out to drive, but Lee had decided it just wasn’t something he wanted to learn.

Nigel got out, but left the keys in, and gestured for Lee to switch seats. “Let’s see. Just drive in the driveway.”

Lee starred at Nigel and then scooted over, looking at the car controls and steering. He didn’t even know how the blinkers worked, or the wipers for that matter. Thank God it wasn’t snowing or raining. “Okay…”

Nigel climbed in the passenger seat, and smiled at his husband, encouragingly. “It’s okay, it’s fucking easy, just drive to that tree, there.”

For all of Lee’s confidence, this was definitely not one he it in. He buckled in, just in case, hands on the wheel, and then looked at the gear shift, and pushed it into drive and slowly took it his foot off the break. He’d seen people do it enough, but  _ actually _ doing it was another thing.

“Good, just … slow, good,” the car rolled forward at a sloth’s pace, snow crunching under the tires. “Now really fucking gentle, press on the gas…”

Carefully, Lee did as told, and pressed down, but it was too much and the car jolted forward and he slammed on the brakes again, just in case. “Sorry, sorry….” he murmured, gripping the steering wheel tightly, and he tried again, this time much easier.

“It’s okay, just … easy, nice and gentle, like you’ve got an egg under your foot, don’t wanna fucking crush it, just move it,” Nigel tried to explain, smiling a little at Lee, “now turn the wheel just a little bit because the road is curved…”

“What if the egg moves?” Lee asked,facetiously, moving his hands on the wheel to move it just so, and the car turned down the dirty path easily, still going at a snail’s speed. 

“Just gentle,” Nigel sighed, and watched Lee drive like a blind old lady, “fuck the egg. Okay, a little big more speed, Baby. Tiny bit.”

Lee gave Nigel a look, brows furrowed. He’d do this for Nigel, because he didn’t want him to have to drive in his condition. Lee closed his eyes a second and then opened them again once gaining his ground, and gently pushed on the gas a little more, getting a bit more speed toward Will’s house.

“Okay, good,” Nigel nodded, “maybe the brakes now, gently, okay?” he said to Lee, very calmly. It was a bad sign when Lee  _ closed his eyes _ while he was driving.  Lee’s hands shook, but this was just another thing he could overcome. He had to learn sometime, right? He hit the brakes, gently, not like the last time. “Maybe we should call someone to take us back…” he wasn’t overly confident in his ability here. “You’re doing fine. It’s a quiet fucking highway,” Nigel reasoned. Driving was hardly rocket science. “If someone comes up behind you, just let them pass.”

“What if another car is coming and they don’t get past me sooner enough?” Lee asked, pulling the car up to the garage and then braked once more and set the car into park.

“They will. People are impatient as fuck. If you need to, put the flashers on, people will think you just have problems,” Nigel said, and leaned over to kiss Lee on the cheek. “You’ll be fine, baby.”

“Think? I’m sure it’s clear that I do,” Lee laughed, and got out of the car, keys in hand for Will’s house and to get the dogs. “Do you think he’ll notice if we don’t make the dogs’ food?”

“They’ll live, besides, can’t be harder than making people food, right?” Nigel reasoned, and climbed out, his hand over his painful arm as he headed to the house.

“I’ll have to research it I guess,” Lee offered. “I’ll get everything, you take your pills and relax, Nigel.”

“Thanks, Baby,” Nigel murmured, and stepped into the house. He managed to pet Beauty on his way to his bag, and swallowed two pills dry as he leaned back against the couch, eyes closed. 

Lee managed to get all the dogs leashed and out to the car, packed and crammed into the back, the littler ones in the floor of the passenger seat. He then got their bags and put them in the trunk along with whatever else the dogs would need, and some of Will’s things. It was packed, but it would have to do.

“Okay, ready to go?” he asked Nigel, touching his good arm.

Nigel opened his eyes slowly. The painkillers were obviously heavy, and left him in a haze. “Sure … where the fuck are we going again?” he murmured, and stood up on the second try.

“To take the dogs to our place,” Lee said, quietly, and helped Nigel up gently. “C’mon, you can sleep in the car.”

“Oh, fuck, right … okay,” Nigel murmured and wrapped his good arm around his husband for a hug as he leaned against him and kissed his cheek. “You’re so soft.”

“Thank you,” Lee said, walking Nigel to the car, getting him seated with the dogs, and buckled in, and then went back to lock up. Once done, he got into the driver’s side and started the car up once more.

Slowly, Lee backed out, taking his time, until finally he was on the road again, the highway out toward home, once more. Cars passed him left and right, and with Nigel completely out of it, Lee had nowhere to go but his own mind and listen to the panting of all the dogs.

“Doing good, Baby,” Nigel murmured every now and then, with his face against the passenger side window as he snoozed, obvious to the world around him, for once. 

Good was not going to cut, as a police car rolled in behind him, clearly running the plates that Lee hoped belonged to Nigel and weren’t stolen. The cop flashes his lights and Lee slowly rolled off to the side of the road and parked, trying not to panic. The walked up and tapped on the window, which Lee rolled down, registration for the car in hand from the glove compartment. All the dogs started to sniff toward the officer.

“I’m going to need your license, too,” the officer said, looking at the fiasco in the car. “How many dogs are in there?”

“Eight,” Lee said, clearly, and handed his ID to the officer, which was all he had.

The police officer looked it over and gave Lee a look over his sunglasses. “This is just a identification card, son.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s all I have. I don’t… drive. I’m only doing it now because my husband is on pain killers, my twin is in the hospital, these are his dogs, and we’re taking them to your place, and I have to get back to my brother before he wakes up, he’s so sick…” Lee prattled on, stopping to take a breath the officer held up his hand.

“Just stop,” the man said, and Lee shut his mouth as the officer started to look the car over with all the dogs, and Nigel asleep in the passenger seat. “It’s illegal to drive if you don’t know how and have no license.”

“I know, but-”

“I’m going to need you to get out of the car please.”

Lee froze, big blue eyes staring at the officer.

Nigel didn’t move a muscle, but he was listening closely, waiting for the cop to make one wrong move. 

“Mister Fallon, I need you to step out of the car, please,” The officer said one more time, opening Lee’s door for him, and Lee got out this time. “Hands on the hood of the car please.” Lee did, and the officer started to pat him down. ‘I’m going to take you in, we’ll get someone out here to drive this car back to your place.”

“Please, I’ll pull off to the side, call someone, I can’t go to jail!” Lee exclaimed, but the officer was started to tug his hands behind his back to cuff him.

“Should have thought about that before deciding to drive your druggie husband around with a bunch of dogs.”

Nigel, even doped up and groggy, was fast with a gun, and accurate. The bullet punctured a hole in the windshield with a loud popping sound, then buried itself in the cop’s forehead over Lee’s shoulder, and lodged itself in his brain, no exit wound. The cuffs dropped to the asphalt below and the cop fell backward, hat knocked off, blood oozing from the perfect circle between his eyebrows. 

Nigel got out, and pocketed his gun, then walked over to Lee. “You okay, Baby? Did he hurt you?” he asked, protectively, as he dragged the cop’s body to the back of the car with one hand, so pissed off that it was easy to do with adrenaline surging through his veins. 

“Yeah,” Lee said, stunned by everything that had happened so quickly, his head was spinning. Nigel killed a man, right in front of him, no hiding that this time, no looking away and pretending he didn’t see it.

“You’ve gotta help me get him in the trunk, alright? Cover your hands with something, and help me lift,” Nigel said, eager to get the body in the trunk before someone drove by. He went to the driver’s side and used the lever to open the trunk, then pulled Lee’s coat sleeves down over his hands, and pulled him toward the back of the car. “Can’t do it with one arm.”

Lee stared at his hands, pulled some gloves on from the glove box in the car, and then moved to Nigel and helped him pull the body into the trunk, trying so, so hard not to think about it. Finally the body was in and Lee shut it quickly, aware that blood would get all over all their things back in there.

“Now what?”

“Now we drive home, and I’ll take care of everything,” Nigel said, calmly, and touched Lee’s face with his good hand. “I’ll drive, I’m not so high anymore, alright? You did good, Baby. Don’t feel bad, he was going to toss you in jail, he didn’t have to be such a fucking prick.”

“I shouldn’t have driven,” Lee said, looking at the cop car behind them. “You don’t think there’s a camera on it do you?”

Nigel walked toward it, and looked in, through the dash. He opened the door with a jacket-covered hand, and looked at the camera, then closed the door. “He shut it off before he got out. He didn’t want to be filmed,” Nigel said with a shrug of his good shoulder, then walked back to his husband and took the keys. “Let’s go.”

“What’s that mean?” Lee asked, wondering if the officer thought things would go south or something. Lee gave one last look back and hopped into the passenger side once more. “Sorry I messed up.”

“It means as soon as he saw you, he decided to do some shit he didn’t want anyone to see,” Nigel grumbled, and started the car again, then drove off. “Don’t be. You were fine, Baby. You did good. Sorry if I scared you.”

Lee had been held up once with a friend, just on the street, and she was confident and he had just sort of stood there laughing it off as the guy ran off after thinking them nuts. That was as close as he’d gotten to a gun being drawn on him until Martin. He really tried not to think about Martin either.

“Lucky for us I guess,” Lee said, leaning his elbow into the door, fingers tucked under his chin.

“You alright?” Nigel asked, more softly, as Beauty climbed right over the back seat and laid in Lee’s lap, all ninety pounds of her snuggled up to him, licking his face.

Lee held Beauty there, resting his chin against her face, letting her lick as much as she wanted. “Yeah. Sorry. I… I’ve never been that close to something like that.”

Nigel was calm, and would have held Lee’s hand if he could have, but … he really only had one to drive with. “You did fine, Baby. I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you, I  _ never _ will, you got that? Never.”

“We killed a cop,” Lee blurted out, rubbing a hand over his face. “He’s in our trunk!”

“No,” Nigel nodded, calmly, and looked at Lee again as Beauty snuggled him even more, trying to soothe him. “I killed a cop who was going to do god knows what to you off his goddamned camera. Cops are the biggest fucking crooks, trust me.”

Lee felt his stomach lurch with that and hugged Beauty to him, petting her soft fur. “I’ve never had issues with them before now…”

“Maybe because you’ve always been in cities. Rural cops are different,” Nigel said, and gave Lee a worried look. “Don’t worry about it. We’re okay, nothing bad’s gonna happen.”

“What if it does? Will works for the FBI…” Lee said, trying not to worry, it wasn’t like him to worry, but the stress of the last week was really starting to toll.

“Lee,” Nigel said, using his husband’s actual name for once, to make Lee look at him. “Who the fuck is going to tell, the dogs? There were no fucking witnesses, no footage … they have nothing.”

“The cuffs were left,” Lee pointed out, but he wasn’t sure they touched enough of him to get prints from, honestly.

“Did you touch them with your fingers?” Nigel asked, slowing the car down in case he had to turn around to go back for them.

“No.” Lee knew he was being worrisome for nothing, but his heart was still racing faster than it ever had before.

“You’re sure? You didn’t leave prints on them?” Nigel asked, and stopped the car. Fuck it. He turned the car around, headed back to the scene.

“I don’t know, I don’t think so!” Lee panicked now, what if someone was calling the cop and already on their way to them. The risk…

“Stay calm, stay fucking calm, Lee,” Nigel said, softly as he drove fast. The sooner they got there, the better. He just had to pick the cuffs up off the ground and they’d be gone.

Lee felt like he’d really messed things up, the lack of sleep all week, and everything else… He took deep breath, in through his nose and out his mouth, eyes closed as he nosed against Beauty’s fur. “I’m calm.”

Nigel stopped around the bend from the cop car, and pulled off the road, close enough to the trees that most people wouldn’t see the car. “I’m going to cut through the trees to get to the cuffs. Hand me a dog leash,” he said, and got out to open the trunk. He came back after wrestling with the corpse for a few moments, wearing the cop’s hat, shades, and jacket. He looked, at first glance, like a cop. “Beauty, baby, come on, play dress up…”

Lee handed over Beauty’s leash and let her out with Nigel, watching him closely, and trying  _ hard _ not to feel so turned on watching him like that, all his emotions conflicted. “Careful.”

Nigel nodded, “we’ll be right back. If anyone asks if you need help, your husband is taking a piss in the woods,” he said, and walked into the woods with Beauty, his injured arm out of the sling, crammed into the jacket sleeve. Especially together, they looked like an officer and his police dog.    
  
Lee bit his lower lip as he nodded, eyes rolling a little as he ground himself not to think about Nigel like that. The other dogs whimpered, and he reached into his pockets to give them treats as he waited for Nigel to come back.   
  
Moments later, Nigel reappeared through the trees with Beauty, cuffs dangling from her mouth. He let her in through the back door, and stuffed the hat, and coat in the trunk before putting his arm back in the sling with a wince, and got in the car, still wearing the shades. “No problems, everything is just like we left it,” he assured Lee as he drove back onto the highway.

“Good.” Lee sighed, looking at Nigel, sad to see the hat go, honestly.

Beauty crawled into the front seat, away from the pile of snoozing dogs, and into Lee’s lap again, and dropped the handcuffs into his lap. “What’s that look for?” Nigel asked, with a little smirk. 

“You keep the hat and sunglasses,” Lee said, picking up the cuffs. “These, too.” He winked.

Nigel laughed, and smiled over at Lee, looking at him over the top of the sunglasses. “Yeah? You like bear cops?”

“I like you as a bear cop,” Lee replied, licking his lips slowly. If Beauty weren't on his lap, and the car full of dogs...

“I’ll keep the hat, cuffs, and sunglasses and wear them later,” Nigel smirked at his husband, glad there was a way around his anxiety.

“Yeah? Going to arrest me?” Lee asked with a grin, leaning over to pat Nigel's thigh.

“I’ll have to search you first,” Nigel grinned, and kept driving.  Lee was smiling again, everything was fine.

Lee could easily put things behind him, and this was just one more, until he had to look at the body again later, anyway. “Oh, frisky?”

“I have to make sure you’re not armed,” Nigel chuckled, pleased with how easily Lee became sunny again. He was resilient as an elastic band. 

“That is certainly true. I might have very dangerous weapons on me,” Lee laughed, flirting with his husband.  
Nigel looked Lee over as he dared to pull his eyes away from the road. “Dangerously distracting, for fucking sure.”

“Watch the road!” Lee chuckled, and rubbed a hand over Nigel’s thigh.

Nigel laughed, and watched the road again, righting the car where it had swerved, slightly. “Not my fucking fault.”

“I did  _ not _ make you do that!” Lee grinned, ear to ear, shaking his head at Nigel. “You can be distracted when we get home.”

“I’ve barely touched you in days,” Nigel sighed, dramatically.

“You’ve barely touched me for a week,” Lee said, frowning, almost pouting.

“That’s even fucking worse, how am I supposed to function like this?” Nigel pointed out, in a sly voice, smirking, and sighed as Beauty tried to lay between them.

Lee shook his head, “You’ll have to make it up to me at home.”

“Hold on a fucking second,” Nigel started, with a devilish gleam in his eyes, “ _ you’re _ making things up to  _ me _ …” he said, trying not to laugh at Lee’s ability to charm him into doing exactly what Lee wanted.

“Everything I do for you or you for me is making it up to one of us, it’s a mutually beneficial,” Lee argued, charmingly.

“You could have been a fucking lawyer,” Nigel laughed, “you just … you always make it sound good, somehow.”

“Isn’t it good?” Lee grinned wider as Nigel drove, a long trip home, but luckily they were half way there, no thanks to Lee’s driving.

“As long as I get sex and some fucking back rubs, whatever, I’m fucking happy,” Nigel laughed, charmed by his husband, as always. Lee was dangerously sweet.

“You’ll get your many backrubs,” Lee sighed, a pointed look over at Nigel as his hand crept up his thigh.

Nigel settled back in the seat, and spread his thighs wider for Lee’s touch. “Looking forward to it,” he hummed.

Lee could hardly move with Beauty between them, but he did what he could, anyway to touch Nigel until they got home. “Nice long back massage, a bath maybe…”

Nigel sped up with a little smile, and gave Lee a longing glance. “After this fucking week, that sounds like  _ heaven _ ,” he sighed. “Food, too. You barely fucking ate anything.”

“Haven’t been hungry,” Lee said, though it was true when Nigel wasn’t around to feed him, he didn’t eat much, just what was there.

“Do you feel okay?” Nigel asked, with a look over at Lee, suddenly concerned about his lack of appetite. 

“I’m fine,” Lee insisted, just run ragged with worry, he hadn’t thought about eating too much. “You cook better than I do.”

“You could have  _ ordered _ food, we can afford it, Baby,” Nigel fussed, and looked at his husband again to see if he was thinner than usual. He hadn’t even had a chance to really look at him.

Lee was wrapped up in a jacket for the snow, hard to tell. “I know that, but no one likes delivering to us with the guards down stairs.”

“Who cares if they don’t fucking like it? It’s their fucking job,” Nigel muttered, and sped up a little more, eager to get home with Lee. 

“I don’t like to inconvenience people.” Lee shrugged, tracing patterns into Nigel’s thigh with his fingers, absently.

“Inconveniences me when you don’t eat,” Nigel said, unable to help the way his leg moved towards Lee’s touch, starved for it.

“Well, it inconvenienced me to not have you home and worry about you so much I couldn’t eat,” Lee admitted, squeezing his fingers around the large muscle.

Nigel sighed through his nose, and looked at Lee before he came to a stop at an intersection, and turned the car toward home. “You not eating is my punishment for leaving?” he asked, one pale eyebrow quirked.

“I didn’t say that.” Lee sighed and took his hand back, running his fingers through Beauty’s fur instead. “I’ve never been able to eat under stress.”

Beauty grunted happily in her sleep at the petting, and Nigel quirked his full lips as he considered that. “Not leaving like that again.”

“You can’t predict the future, Nigel,” Lee said, honestly, and watched him as he drove.

“Maybe not,” Nigel admitted, and his chest sank with a sigh before he looked over at Lee. “but I don’t think anyone’s going to fuck with me like that for a long time…” he said, grimly.

“You let your guard down,” Lee mused, sadly, feeling  a bit responsible for that one.

“Maybe,” Nigel admitted, and his eyes stared into the distance. “it’s taken care of, now. Anyone else who has the same fucking idea is going to think twice after that.”

“You’re… strong,” Lee mused, and took Nigel’s hand again.

“I was pissed off,” Nigel said, softly, and sighed, then looked over at Lee. “Pissed and strong are different things.”

“I meant… mentally. You’re able to keep it up, not let people take you down with it,” Lee said, and smiled over at Nigel. “I like that in you. We have our moments, but you don’t back down.”

“It’s survival, what’s my other choice? Fucking die?” Nigel asked, with a little smile this time, ready to accept that compliment. He folded it up like piece of paper in his mind and tucked it away in the locked vault of his dark heart, for safe keeping.

“Exactly. I like that a lot, and without it, I don’t know that you would have fought  _ for _ me,” Lee explained, squeezing Nigel’s hand, more in love now than he had ever been.

Nigel gave Lee a chiding, but affectionate look, and swallowed hard. “I’d fucking fight for you even when I stopped fighting for myself,” he said, quietly, honestly.

Lee Leaned over and kissed Nigel’s jaw, nuzzled there once and then sat back. “I love you.”

Nigel smiled, softly. He looked worn, the lines on his face a little deeper than usual, but there was a glow about him when Lee kissed his jaw that made him seem softer than usual, as well. “Love you too, baby.”


	3. Chapter 3

A week and a half after helping Will, Nigel and Lee were living with eight dogs in their expensive condo. Lee took “the pack” for runs, daily, which they all seemed to enjoy and Nigel even had Lee’s usual security relaxed, just a bit, for those runs.   
  
No one was going to fuck with a guy with eight (mostly sizeable) dogs.   
  
Nigel was waiting for Lee to return from one of his ‘pack runs’, and was talking on the phone. “So, he’s going to be discharged? Right. We’ll be there, how is he?”

“He’s ready to be discharged?” Lee asked as he let the dogs off the leashes, catching the tail end of what was said, and presumed.

The dogs ran toward Nigel, and jumped on the couch to lay on him where he sat. Nigel hung up the phone, engulfed in a wall of fur and slobbery tongues. “Yeah, after lunch,” Nigel said, and pulled Buster down onto his lap to rub his belly with one hand.

The dogs had gotten used to them quickly, thankfully. Lee laughed and sat down between a few dogs, fur everywhere. “Really? He's okay? That Doctor Chilton didn't come back did he?”

“Didn’t say anything about that. He can leave as long as he’s got someone around,” Nigel said, and tugged Buster’s ears, gently.

“Well, I'm here all the time, so he'll be okay,” Lee said, and went to change into jeans and a t-shirt.

Nigel put Buster down, with a pat, and followed Lee into the bedroom, leaning against the doorframe as he watched him. “He can have the room by the kitchen, it’s still all made up from when we moved in.”

“I still don’t know why we had a guest room made, but I guess it was a good idea,” Lee said, throwing off his shirt and tugging on another.

Nigel walked up behind Lee, and ran his hand over Lee’s chest before it was covered by the shirt, then kissed the side of his neck. “It just came with the place, never made the guest room into anything else.”

Lee tilted his head back, into Nigel’s lips with a appreciative hum. “As I said, it was a good thing. Preemptive.”

“Should have made it into a dungeon,” Nigel smirked, and bit the back of Lee’s neck, softly, just teasing him as he dressed. 

“Oh,” Lee crooned, “what sort of dungeon?” he slipped his running shorts off and grabbed his jeans off the bed.

“Something with a swing made of leather straps and something I could cuff you to on the wall,” Nigel whispered against Lee’s ear, with a scrape of his teeth against Lee’s earlobe.

“Maybe… when Will’s better and gone,” Lee suggested, biting his bottom lip at the thought. “We could go shopping for those things together.” He stepped into his jeans but left them undone.

“Yeah,” Nigel purred, and palmed Lee with his good hand through the open fly of his jeans. “All sorts of shit we could put in there…”

“A spanking table,” Lee whispered, already half hard just  _ thinking _ about it.

“A leather spanking table with little holes for your wrists,” Nigel hummed.

“And a paddle.” Lee rolled his hips back into Nigel’s, seductively. The more he thought about it, the more he knew they’d be waiting a long while.

“Fuck, yes,” Nigel whispered, and gripped Lee’s cock, worked up at the thought. “You’d need a fucking cockring so that you don’t come too fast when I slapped that ass of yours with it.”

“I’ll wear any cockring you want,” Lee mused, hips jutting out into Nigel’s hand as he gripped behind him to rake a hand down Nigel’s thigh.

“I’ll get one made for you,” Nigel whispered, and started to stroke Lee slowly with his hand, thumbing his tip as he did so. Nigel rubbed himself against the smooth curve of Lee’s perky ass.

“Oh fuck,” Lee groaned, and bent over slightly, jeans falling to the ground at his feet. “Fuck me already.”

“Bend over the bed,” Nigel whispered, and unzipped himself, already so hard that it felt like his heart was pounding between his thighs.

Lee stepped out of his jeans and planted his hands on the bed, spreading his thighs for Nigel. “This?” he gazed over his shoulder at Nigel, watching him with dark eyes.

“Yeah, just like that,” Nigel purred and grabbed the lube from their bed stand, drizzling it over his cock. It was best to fuck now, before they had Will here for god knew how long. Nigel’s fingers plunged into Lee’s ass, wet with lube, and twisted as they opened him up. “Most perfect ass in the world…”

“Nigel-” Lee groaned, gripping the bed tight as his body moved with the push from Nigel, taking his fingers in wholly. “Fuck.”

“How the fuck did I ever deserve you?” Nigel asked under his breath as he replaced his fingers with his cock, and held Lee’s thigh with his good hand as he pressed into him.

“Yes, good,” Lee moaned, head down between his shoulders. “How do I deserve  _ you _ ?”

“All that fucking good karma,” Nigel moaned, and scratched his blunt nails over Lee’s back, then slapped his ass as he started to thrust.

Lee stretched out like a cat, ass up and long arms spread out across the bed as he moaned. “You… oh shit, Nigel-” he wanted to say more but the impending bloom of pleasure knocked him breathless.  
“Look at you,” Nigel moaned, his voice broken by the moving of his hips against Lee’s ass, every jerk put a hitch in the rumble of Nigel’s words. “Fucking beautiful…” he slapped Lee’s ass again, reddening the white, perfect flesh around his tattoo.

Lee arched back against his husband’s cock, all but growling into the sheets as Nigel hit his prostate perfectly. “There, harder-”

“Stroke yourself,” Nigel growled, commanding his husband to touch his own cock while he was fucked, and made his hips slap harder against Lee’s ass, making his own skin tingle with the impact.

Lee reached between his legs, between the bed and his hips, and started to stroke, long an easy flicks of his wrist. “Mm…”

“Christ-” Nigel swore as he watched Lee’s back flex while he jerked off. He ran his good hand over the muscles slowly, silver hair falling in his eyes as he lost himself in the feeling of fucking Lee, again. No matter how many times he did it, it was … fucking divine. “Lee-”

Lee huffed, his body tightening up like a wound spool, his core heated with pleasure that threatened to spill at any moment. Breath hitching, Lee started that upward climb that would shoot him right through. “Nigel-”

“That’s it ... “ Nigel whispered, breathlessly, his intense, dark eyes focused on Lee as his beautiful body writhed on the bed. “Wanna feel you squeeze around me when you fucking come, Baby.”

Panting hard, Lee worked his fist over his own cock harder and faster, finally claiming that spurt of passion as he came, clenching tight and hot around Nigel, and white hot against his closed eyelids. “Fuck, fuck… Nigel-!”

Nigel grunted hard, and then his jaw dropped. The grunt turned into a long, shaky moan as he came inside Lee, blindingly hard. The orgasm made Nigel shake from head to toe, and he caressed the side of Lee’s hip with a sweaty palm while he rode it out, pulsing inside Lee slowly.

Coming down from his sex induced high slowly, Lee watched over his shoulder at Nigel, breathing raggedly. “Fuck, I needed that.”

“Me too,” Nigel groaned, and leaned down to kiss the back of Lee’s neck, “like a fucking drug.”

Lee reached behind him to rub Nigel’s arm. “Considering we won’t get a lot of this done with Will around.”

“If he hadn’t saved your life…” Nigel sighed, and kissed Lee’s jaw.

“But he did.” Lee chuckled, carding his hand up through Nigel’s hair and then gently pushed him off, otherwise they’d just do it again and forget all about his twin brother.

Nigel pulled back and stood, then pulled Lee closer again, to kiss him on the lips this time. “Okay, okay …”

Lee’s arms wrapped around Nigel tightly, holding him close as they kissed, deep and long, savoring each moment. “I love you.”

“Love you, baby,” Nigel whispered, and kissed Lee again, managing to hand Lee his shirt from where he found it on the bed.

Lee laughed, pulling his shirt on and then his pants once again, smiling at Nigel. “We should get going, don’t want him thinking we forgot.”

“Hopefully he’s just sleeping,” Nigel said, and did up his pants again, one-handed, having had practice at it for the last couple of weeks.

Lee helped him anyway with a coy smirk, and then found his jacket. He went to the guest room and packed Will a change of clothes for the ride back. Nothing great, just sweats and a t shirt.

The dogs seemed to know something was up, and trotted around the couple, wagging and looking generally eager. “Back later,” Nigel promised them, and petted Beauty, then Buster.

Lee smiled and grabbed his coat and one for Will. He tossed the bag over his shoulder and headed to the elevator, waiting for Nigel as he got in, door held with his foot.

Nigel got in, and Buster darted through the doors before they could stop him. He sat, and wagged up at Nigel. “I guess he’s coming.”

“Will's guard dog?” Lee laughed, shaking his head, leaning into Nigel’s a little.

“He’s small, he won’t take up a lot of space,” Nigel said, fond of the little scrappy one.

Lee chuckled and bent to pet the dog, who loved the attention. “Maybe he can scare of the psychiatrist…”

“Who’s this fucking psychiatrist you keep talking about?” Nigel asked, and whistled for Buster to follow them after the door opened, he nodded to the guards and unlocked the car.

“Something, something… Chilton, I don’t know. He’s been very intrusive the few times I’ve been there with Will and he’s shown up,” Lee explained, shrugging. The doors opened and he scooped Buster up.

“Hm,” Nigel said, almost to himself as he held Lee’s door open with his good hand, and then got in his side of the car, started it up, and left the garage.

The ride was quiet getting there, but it never took long to get there either. They pulled up and Lee got out, Will’s bag of fresh clothes over one shoulder, Buster under another arm. He waited for Nigel and took his hand.

Nigel squeezed Lee’s hand, and walked with him into the hospital, letting Lee show him where Will’s room was. “I’m sure he’ll be happy to get the fuck out of here…”

Lee was the one that saw Will most often, as Nigel had work to do. He signed them in and then headed down the hall and up a flight of stairs, to Will’s room where he was sitting on the side of the bed, that awful doctor in there talking to him. Lee rolled his eyes.

Nigel walked in behind Lee, and narrowed his eyes at the fancy looking doctor who was standing at the side of Will’s bed, talking to him. Will didn’t seem particularly fond of him, and Nigel guessed he was the psychiatrist.    
  
“As I was saying, it is very possible to have psychiatric problems that are just masked by a convenient physical illness,” the doctor said to Will, and looked up, first at Lee, then at Nigel. “This must be your twin,” Chilton said to Will, looking Lee over, “ … _ interesting _ .”

Lee rolled his eyes; Chilton liked to play those games, like he hadn’t seen Lee before, to start up the conversation all over again.

“Get out,” Lee said, giving Will a look and then confronted the doctor, “ _ please _ .” Parts of Will’s crassness seemed to be rubbing off on Lee just a little bit. He looked back at his brother. “Ready to go?”

Will nodded as Lee came over with his bag of things, and offered to help him to the bathroom to change, since the doctor didn’t seem to want to leave.

“Well, it seems your sparkling people-skills are genetic,” Chilton quipped to Will, and pulled a business card out of his pocket to hand to Lee. “If you’re ever interested in being featured in a prominent medical journal, I can assure you that I-”   
  
“I’ll fucking take that,” Nigel said from behind Chilton, his voice dangerously soft as he reached over with one hand and plucked the card out of Chilton’s hand. Chilton shivered, blinked, and turned to find himself faced with Nigel’s tall frame too close to him, and the most intensely intimidating gaze he’d ever met.    
  
“I-” Chilton tried, and physically cowered like an animal tucking its tail between its legs.   
  
Nigel took a step closer, and his lips drew themselves into a dangerous looking smirk as he moved Chilton out of the room backward without laying a hand on him. “That was fucking  _ rude _ , you know?” Nigel hissed, which made Chilton stumble over the leg of a chair, and fall, only to catch himself against the door, awkwardly, which only made the difference between Chilton and Nigel even more exaggerated: one a born predator, one a parasite.    
  
“I … was just offering … my … Will and I are friends, and associates, I … who are you? By the way? I could call … security ...” Chilton asked, his voice going a little high as Nigel reached down and picked Chilton up by his suit jacket, then slammed him against the wall.   
  
“Bother either of them again, and my name won’t be important, only that I will make your life a blistering, living Hell … you got that?” Nigel seethed. “If you fucking want to call security, go ahead, but make sure to call a  _ dozen _ or so.”   
  
Their eyes stayed locked for a long moment, and Chilton reached beside him to open the door as he slipped himself out of Nigel’s grasp. “Speedy recovery, Will…” he mumbled.

Will and Lee had come back out just as Chilton left, and both of them gave Nigel a look, same sea blue gaze blinking at him. Lee canted his head. “You do have a way with people.”

“Are you complaining?” Nigel asked, bluntly, calm now.

Lee shook his head with a little frown, but was not at all complaining. Will just smiled weakly, dressed in the sweat and shirt Lee brought him and tucked Buster under one arm, petting him.

“He ran into the fucking elevator as the doors were closing,” Nigel said, as he looked at Buster. “Had to come get you, I guess. Stubborn dog.” He smiled, just a little, and opened the door, holding it for his husband and brother in law.

Lee got the bag that was now empty and filled only with a few prescriptions for Will, and followed Will out as he exited first. “Yeah, Buster has a mind of his own,” Will said, exhausted sounding.

“He likes beer,” Nigel said, as he called the elevator to their floor with the press of a button.

Will chuckled. “Yeah, he does. Should have never started that habit with him.” The doors opened and Lee put his hand on Will’s back to help him inside.

“He jumped up beside me and started licking the bottle while I was watching a match. I thought he was fucking crazy, then gave him some,” Nigel said, stepping inside. He kept an eye out for Chilton, more than willing to tear the quack a new one.

“It was cute,” Lee said and Will shook his head.

“As long as it’s not a lot.”

Lee gave Nigel a look. “It wasn’t everyday…” They all piled in the elevator going down to the main floor again.

“No, just when there was a match,” Nigel said, and looked over at Buster, who gave him a wink.

“Only for as long as I’m staying with you,” Will mentioned as the doors opened once more and Lee held it this time for them and then followed up, and then out again. Will had signed himself out before they got there.

“Fair enough,” Nigel said, and put his shades on as they walked to the car, then held the door for Lee, and for Will, too, since he was still fragile.

Will nodded at Nigel as they left the hospital. Lee got the back door for Will and helped him in, sat the bag beside him and handed shut it again. He got into the front and buckled in once more. “We aren’t far from here. Just a few blocks.”

“Lee used to get chemo here, we bought our place where we did just to be close,” Nigel explained as he got into the car and started the engine, then began to drive home.    
  
Buster laid in Will’s lap after sniffing him over, very thoroughly, and heaved a content sigh. Will gave Buster a good pet for that, happy to be going… well not home, but away from the hospital. “I hardly wanted to be there as long as I was, I can’t imagine going more than once a week.”

Lee shrugged. “After twelve years of it, you get used to it. Now it’s strange  _ not _ going.”

“But we’re not in a fucking rush,” Nigel added, with a sideways look at his husband through his wispy silver bangs as he turned the corner.

“To be back there for that? No we’re not,” Lee smiled and touched Nigel’s arm gently, Will watching them both with a look that could only be passive endearment.

Nigel drove back to the enclosed, secure parkade and took their usual spot, then shut off the car. “These guys by the elevator are just security,” Nigel explained, nonchalantly, and stepped out of the car, smoothly.

Lee got out and then held the door open for Will, taking the pack once again while Will held Buster. Will got out and looked at the guards. “Are things that… intense around here?”

Lee shrugged. “When we first met, Nigel’s old place was blown up. It’s a precaution.”

“Yeah,” Nigel nodded, like that sort of thing happened to people all the time. He led Will and Lee past the guards, and explained who Will was in quick Romanian before the elevator doors opened. He didn’t bother giving Will the guards’ names. He didn’t need to know them.

“Am I… prisoner here?” Will asked, snarkily, looking from Lee to Nigel.

“Not at all, but you aren’t supposed to be out and about anyway.” Lee  gave his brother a challenging look.

“And I don’t give a fuck what you do,” Nigel said, as he held the door open.

“If you didn’t care, I wouldn’t be here,” Will pointed out, following Lee since Nigel seemed to want less and less to do with him, which was just fine with Will.

Lee lead him to the guest room, donned in simple blacks and whites with a little bonsai tree on the side table under a lamp, a window for some sunlight. Minimalistic at least. “I’ll let you settle in,” he said.

Nigel gave Will a look before headed to the kitchen, and spoke over his shoulder. “I’d do anything for Lee. You’re important to him. Take whatever the fuck you want from the kitchen.”

The dogs realized Will had arrived, and bounded out of one of Lee’s meditation rooms to the guest room. All of them jumped on the bed to sniff at and lick Will in a frantic mob of wagging tails and shiny eyes.

Will dropped to the floor to pet them all, and them wag and lick, and Lee set the pack on the bed, letting Will get comfortable. He left the room, and wandered back to find Nigel.

Nigel was pouring a drink in the kitchen, and set the bottle down to take a swallow when he saw Lee walk in after him. “Dogs are happy.”

Lee canted his head, hands clasped in front of him, walking around to Nigel, he put his hands on his shoulders. “They are. Upset you’ll lose your game day partner?”

Nigel looked back at his husband, over his shoulder as he set the glass down. “Maybe, “ he admitted, under his breath. Beauty had really become Lee’s running partner, and loved Lee more than she loved anyone.

Lee wrapped his arms around Nigel instead. “We need to get that puppy. You can teach it to be anything you want.”

“What puppy?” Nigel asked, amused, looking back at his husband with a little gleam in his eyes. He had been secretly disappointed when Buster went to Will, and finally abandoned him. Nigel had to admit … he liked the tough, stubborn little dog who thought he was a two-hundred pound pitbull.

“The one I know you’ve been eyeing every time we go to the pet store,” Lee whispered, kissing Nigel’s neck as he got up on his toes to do so. “Unless you’re content with me. I could  _ try _ to be into sports, and lay in your lap for  _ hours  _ at a time.”

“We’d end up fucking,” Nigel chuckled, and turned around to face Lee with a little flush in his face. He didn’t fucking blush at the dirtiest things, but Lee noticing that he wanted a stupid puppy … that was  _ private _ .

“So what? We’d fuck. We fuck all the time,” Lee chuckled and kissed Nigel’s jaw. “But I’m not a good puppy either…”

“You’re a good husband,” Nigel whispered, and tilted his head so that Lee could kiss him, better.

“I’m fucking trying,” Lee whispered back with a chuckle, nipping at Nigel’s jaw, and then his neck. “You’re the only one I’ve ever tried this hard for.”

Nigel smiled at that, and bent his head back, presenting his long, perpetually bronzed throat for Lee to nip at with a sigh. “I’m the luckiest man I’ve ever met…”

“I think we both did something right to find each other,” Lee whispered, kissing up Nigel’s neck to his jaw once more, and then over to his mouth, cupping his face as he nuzzled their noses together.

“You’re the first thing I’ve done right,” Nigel admitted, and brushed their lips together, his own lips still burning with the strong, dark booze that waited in his glass.

“And you do me right every single time,” Lee teased softly, a grin on his lips as he pressed them against Nigel’s for a deeper kiss, tasting the alcohol from his lips.

Nigel sighed against Lee’s lips, and pulled him closer with one arm for a deep, slow kiss. “Every time?”

“I’ve never been dissatisfied,” Lee crooned, running his palms down Nigel’s chest, raking his fingers against his shirt.

“You’re fucking easy to please, show a little chest hair, slap your ass, you’re happy…” Nigel purred, between kisses.

“Are you calling me easy?” Lee asked, with mock offense.

“Easy for me,” Nigel whispered back with a smirk on his generous lips, and kept their mouths hovering just against one another as they engaged in banter.

“Always easy for you,” Lee reiterated, slipping a few buttons on Nigel’s shirt undone to see more chest hair, feeling it with his long finger. “Mm…”

Nigel laughed. Lee was the only one who could make him laugh like that … at least anymore. Darko had been funny, of course, but every time Nigel could remember laughing with him was tainted now. Lee was … different. Trustworthy. “So easy, you do the seducing for me.”

“Do I need to try harder?” Lee asked, undoing a few more buttons.

“Try harder to be easy?” Nigel teased, and leaned down to scrape his teeth over Lee’s earlobe.

“No, be less easy,” Lee whispered roughly, hands gripping into Nigel’s shirt.

“I don’t think you could,” Nigel whispered back, and ran his good hand down Lee’s back, to his ass.

“I can’t help how weak in the knees you make me just by looking at me,” Lee murmured, hips pressed in tight against Nigel’s.

“That’s all it fucking takes, huh? A look?” Nigel whispered as he kneaded Lee’s ass with one hand, slowly.”Fully dressed, just fucking looking at you is good enough?”

“From the day you walked into the dog wash,” Lee whispered as he gazed up Nigel with a smirk. “Your commanding presence shook something loose inside of me.”

Nigel grinned at Lee, remembering the day well. “I’m a man who knows what the fuck he wants and isn’t afraid to ask for it. I knew I wanted  _ you _ .”

“And yet I had to be bold enough to give you  _ my _ number,” Lee mused, though it hardly mattered now, he looked back on that fateful day often.

Nigel chuckled to himself, “I was going to come back without the dog,” he said, and nuzzled their noses together, “maybe pick you up for a drink whenever your shop closed.”

“Well we ended up doing something similar,” Lee grinned, and kissed Nigel  deeply.

“You were gorgeous,” Nigel murmured, between kisses, and walked Lee backwards until he pinned him with his body against the front of their fridge.

“Were?” Lee teased, breath knocked out of him when Nigel got like this, pent up and ready to go for another round. He carded long fingers through his hair, tugging.

“Fuck,” Nigel swore, and kissed Lee harder, muttering against his lips, “you fucking  _ are _ .”

“Damn right,” Lee said as he bit Nigel’s lip and hitched a leg up and around his hips.

Nigel ground his hips against Lee’s through their jeans as they kissed, and used his good hand to keep Lee’s leg just as it was. “Fucking hot …”

“We have to be quiet,” Lee whispered with a little  _ giggle _ , like they were teens trying to keep this from a parent.

“Shh,” Nigel whispered back against Lee’s lower lip, and ground their pelvises together, again, slowly and  obscenely.

Lee groaned, gasping against Nigel’s mouth as he rocked his hips against his, creating perfect friction. “Nigel…”

“Tell me what you want, Baby,” Nigel moaned, getting off on the idea that they had to sneak around their own place, now.

“Your cock inside me,” Lee whispered against Nigel’s mouth, sucking on his tongue lewdly.

“C’mon, bathroom,” Nigel whispered back, breathless already at the thought of sneaking in a quick fuck with his husband. 

Lee’s eyes glinted brightly with the idea, and took Nigel’s good hand and dragged him into the master bathroom in their own bedroom, and shut the door, locking it. He pushed Nigel up against the door, all but crawling him as he undid the last few buttons of his shirt and kissed him hard.

Lee was always so passionate. It was hard to find someone who could match Nigel’s passion, but Lee was his equal, perfectly.    
  
Nigel all but tore Lee’s t-shirt off of his slender body, over his head, and bit the side of his neck as he undid his pants.

“Nigel-” Lee groaned, pushing the shirt off carefully, over the hurt arm. Then, Lee started on Nigel’s pants, pushing those too to the ground, while nuzzling his his face into Nigel’s crotch since he was down there.

Nigel moaned, and plunged his fingers into Lee’s short hair, tugging on it. “Wet me,” he commanded, as he looked down at Lee with intense eyes.

Licking his lips, Lee nuzzled again and then open his mouth to suck the tip of Nigel’s cock into his mouth, taking him all the way down in the first go, groaning almost whorishly around his length, humming pleasantly. Lee was the most dizzyingly good cock-sucker Nigel had ever met. A deep, shaky moan left Nigel’s lips, and he bit his lower lip as he looked down and watched his husband’s mouth as it worked around him. “That’s it, Baby.”

Lee ground his tongue against the tip, lapping up the salty precome there as he squeezed his hands around Nigel’s thick thighs, pulling him in closer. His teeth grazed sensitive skin, just so.

Nigel’s nostrils flared as he breathed deeply, and rolled his hips, pressing his cock deeper into the hot, wet furnace of Lee’s mouth. He closed his eyes in sheer bliss, and cupped his hand over the back of Lee’s neck, lost in the feeling. “That fucking tongue of yours…”

Grinning around Nigel’s cock, Lee’s eyes lit up at that, and he reached under Nigel to tug on his balls, rolling them in his palm as his head bobbed down and around his cock, slobbering him up for the fucking Lee knew was coming.

Nigel gasped out an obscenity and pressed his cock deeper into Lee’s mouth at the tug, then pulled out, and yanked Lee up with his good arm. “On the counter, spread your legs.”

“Facing you?” Lee asked, stepping out of his jeans as hiked himself up on the counter.

“I want to see your face when I come,” Nigel said, roughly, and pulled Lee toward him with one hand, then rubbed his wet cock against Lee’s entrance, then pressed into him, slowly, no fingers, no easing him into it.

Lee was still loosened up from earlier, taking Nigel in completely, hands on his shoulder, carefully. “Nigel…” he groaned, nuzzling him once before his head lolled back.

Nigel pulled Lee closer, his good hand on Lee’s thigh, arm wrapped around it as he pressed himself deeper inside Lee, and bit his lower lip. “God, I love fucking you…”

“I know,” Lee groaned, all but sitting on Nigel like this, off the side of the counter, already pent up with lust. “I fucking love you, too.”

Nigel bit Lee’s lip, hard as he rutted inside him and held on to Lee’s ass with one hand. Their bodies moved together like one, writhing and rocking seamlessly.

Panting against Nigel’s mouth, Lee held him tight around his shoulders, legs wrapped around his hips to keep him up against that sweet spot inside. “Fuck-”

“Bite my fucking neck,” Nigel whispered, breathlessly, hips still rocking hard, cock deep inside Lee’s body.

Lee tugged on Nigel’s hair as he bit down the side of his throat, finding his pulse and digging in pearly white teeth, loving when his husband got commanding with him-- hell commanding with anyone.

Nigel moaned, roughly, and plowed deeper into Lee. “Fuck, yeah, like that, fuck-” Nigel growled, he could feel heat spiking through the backs of his legs, down his back.

Lee taste copper as he bit in harder, white hot heat blossoming through his lower back and thighs, gasping against Nigel’s neck. “Gonna-”

“Yeah-” was all Nigel could manage before he came in blinding waves hat made his entire body shudder so hard that he struggled to stay standing. 

Squeezing around Nigel’s cock, Lee  grasped onto him harder as he came,, every bone in his body slack feeling and raw, loose with the release. “Fuckin… Nigel-”

Nigel kissed the side of Lee’s neck as he came, and bit at his throat, so they’d have matching marks. He sucked at the reddened spot, slowly as Lee climaxed. “Fuck, I love feeling you come…”

Lee hummed, holding Nigel’s head there to suck a bruise right into him. He’d never been as risky as he was with Nigel with those things. He didn’t even care if Will saw. “It’s all over you…”

Nigel hummed at that, and then pulled back to look between them with a smirk before he kissed Lee’s lips, again. “Always gets all over me,” he whispered, obviously just fine with that. “Love it.”

Lee smirked, and kissed Nigel heatedly, and then pushed him back a little, sliding off the counter and between it and Nigel, and started to lap his own come off Nigel’s stomach and hip.

Nigel groaned, and stared at Lee, transfixed as he licked the come from Nigel’s stomach. “Do you like the taste of yourself?”

Lee shrugged as he took his time, and then bit Nigel’s hip for the remark. “So what if I do?”

“Nothing wrong with that, baby, just asking,” Nigel sighed, and ran his fingers through Lee’s hair. “Think your brother heard us?”

“Maybe,” Lee said, standing up again, arms around Nigel’s shoulders, carefully. “Can’t do much about it now.”

“He’ll have to live with the fact that we fuck,” Nigel murmured, and moved Lee toward the shower. “A lot.”

“He’ll be fine,” Lee reasoned, though he would reassure his brother later they would try to keep it down. Maybe. A little. Lee turned on the water and stepped in, tugging Nigel with him.

Nigel stopped to take his sling and shirt off, carefully. His arm was still bandaged, he hadn’t let Lee really look at it, yet, but he knew he had to change the bandages soon. He sighed, and unwound the bandages, revealing an arm that was green and yellow with old bruising, splotches of purple here and there. There was a perfect hole on the outside of his forearm that was healing quickly, and a much larger exit wound on the other side.    
  
It was gory, but the worst was over.    
  
He stepped into the shower, and kissed Lee up against the wall.

“Trying to distract me from seeing that?” Lee asked, breathlessly, letting Nigel do just that, and was careful not to touch the wound.

“It sure as fuck wasn’t pretty,” Nigel said, sheepishly, as he nuzzled Lee under the spray that beat down over their faces. “Didn’t want to worry you.”

“You’ve been home a week and I’ve yet to see it,” Lee sighed, nuzzling Nigel back, and then skimming his hand over his stomach to get off the excess come.

“Your brother was in the hospital, you didn’t need to look at my shot up arm. It was a fucking miracle the bones weren’t broken,” Nigel said, and turned his arm over to show Lee the exit wound, sewn shut, and still bruised deep purple and blue around the edges.

Lee sighed, he’d seen a lot of wounds, a lot of gross with his time in and out of hospital, but seeing it on Nigel was never easy. “Remember that first time I patched you up?”

“Yeah,” Nigel murmured, and looked at his shoulder where Lee had stitched him. “This was different, not just a graze. I don’t want you to fucking worry I’m going to die every time I have to work.”

“Just like you worry I’m going to get sick every time I don’t eat enough? Or forget a jacket once?” Lee asked, knowingly, brows raised.

Nigel gave his husband a look as water dripped off of his silvery eyelashes. “You did get sick. You almost died,” Nigel said, factually, and started to wash Lee’s hair for him, slowly.

“But I’m not sick now,” Lee pointed out, letting his head loll back a little as Nigel did that, distractingly.

Nigel let his fingertips dig into Lee’s neck muscles as he massaged him. “Once was enough for me. I’m not going to watch you like that again and wonder if you would have been okay if you’d just had some fucking lunch, or whatever. Someone’s got to take care of you…”

“Someone does,” Lee whispered, and kissed the inside of Nigel’s wrist as it skimmed past his face. “And I don’t try to not take care of myself on purpose.”

“I know, you just live in the moment,” Nigel smiled, and rinsed Lee’s short hair running his hands over it, both of them, gently, before he kissed him again. “I fucking love that.”

“We balance each other out,” Lee insisted, smiling against Nigel’s lips. He grabbed the soap and began to lather it up in Nigel’s furry chest.

Nigel just smiled, and watched Lee’s eyes as Lee sunk his hands into Nigel’s chest hair. “So, when am I getting my back rub?”

“Do you want it now or after dinner?” Lee queried. Honestly, he’d give Nigel two if he wanted, or as many as he asked for, any reason to touch his husband.

“After dinner,” Nigel said with a little smile, “it can be dessert. Do you use oil and shit?” he asked, curiously, and rested the hand of his injured arm against Lee’s chest. 

“I did that first time, remember?” Lee said, quirking a brow. “Forgot so soon?”

“I must have been distracted,” Nigel chuckled, and kissed Lee as he shut off the shower with his good arm.

“We get very distracted,” Lee hummed, grabbing the towels.

Nigel watched Lee, admiring his wet, naked body as he got the towels. “I’ve been in a fucking permanent state of distraction since the day we met.”

Lee gave Nigel a hooded glance as he wrapped a towel around his hips, and then proceeded to do the same to his husband. “Complaining?”

“Fuck, no,” Nigel whispered, and ran his good hand down Lee’s back as he looked at the two of them together in the mirror across from them, through the fog.

“Didn’t think so,” Lee said, gently touching Nigel’s arm, wondering if distraction had anything to do with that, but said nothing about it.

Nigel looked down at his mangled arm, and sighed. “Could you bandage it?” he asked, softly. As much as he didn’t want to worry Lee, he did like the attention.

Humming, Lee got out the new bandages and tape, and moved Nigel to sit on the countertop as he worked swiftly. Lee didn't worry often, but since meeting Nigel, his sense of losing something had grown, and he couldn't help it. He taped the bandage down.

“There.”

“Thanks,” Nigel murmured, and kissed Lee for it, then rested their heads together, just breathing.

Lee didn’t think about it often, but when he did, he wondered just what he got himself into with Nigel, and then remembered that love was the hardest thing to find in life, and he was lucky to have his life and love at all.

“I love you.”

“Love you too, Baby,” Nigel whispered, and kissed the side of Lee’s jaw, then nuzzled his ear.  Nigel had never imagined he could be so happy on a daily basis with anyone. As good as the sex was, it wasn’t just about fucking with Lee. There were moments that Nigel was at his happiest as he watched Lee do nothing but sit cross legged in a room, thinking of nothing.

He’d never tell Lee, but seeing the peace on Lee’s face always made Nigel calm. That was as close as he’d ever get to meditation.    
  
“We should get some dinner,” Nigel sighed, and turned his head at the sound of Beauty scratching at the door. She whimpered, her big black nose under the crack of the door, not used to being shut away from her people.

“Yes,” Lee said, with a smile, and grinned at his husband, and then let the dog in, walking out to the bedroom to find clean clothes to wear.

Beauty licked at their knees, happily, and wagged her tail hard enough that it whacked against the door frame, quickly as they moved into the bedroom. She jumped up on the bed and gave Lee a hopeful look as she readied herself for a nap with him.    
  
“Beauty says you need to sleep,” Nigel laughed, and dressed, slowly.

“Somehow she still thinks I need three naps a day,” Lee sighed, pulling on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. He laid down for a moment, letting Beauty curl up next to him, and gave her snuggle.

Beauty laid her head on Lee’s stomach, to keep him there, and Nigel took a picture of them with his phone. “Two beauties.”

“If I get stuck napping, you’re in charge of dinner and tending to my brother,” Lee said, petting Beauty’s head as he laid back, relaxing. He hated to admit that even after beating cancer, he always felt like he needed a nap in the middle of the day. Nigel smirked, knowingly, and gave Beauty a pat on the head while she snuggled Lee, as though rewarding her for getting him to rest. “I can handle him,” Nigel assured Lee, before kissing him.

Remission didn’t mean Lee was without cancer forever, so honestly, he really did have watch everything he did, and really take care of himself. Lee was pretty good at that, until he was too stubborn to admit that maybe he wasn’t. “Alright.” He stifled a yawn, smiling up at Nigel. “Just half an hour.”

“Half an hour,” Nigel nodded, and let himself out of the bedroom. His arm was wrapped, but out of the sling, now. He’d try to do a few things without it. He went to the kitchen and opened the fridge, looking inside it with a sigh.

“I’m not confined to bed completely am I?” Will asked from behind Nigel, wearing the same sort of clothes as Lee, they looked almost identical if not for their hair difference.

Nigel looked back at Will, over his shoulder, struck by their sameness. “No, if you can walk around, go for it,” he said, and started to take things out of the fridge. “Hungry?”

“After nothing but hospital food, yeah,” Will murmured, rubbing a hand over his face. He’d heard everything, despite how much he tried not to. His trail of dogs followed him toward the back door where he stopped to look out at Lee’s zen garden, so to speak. “He’s really into this… meditation thing isn’t he?”

Nigel chuckled and pulled a package of bacon out of the fridge, then laid it in a pan, and let it start to sizzle. “Meditates every day, prays to the Buddha, or … whatever he does.”

“Buddhist don’t pray to Buddha,” Will said, with a slight smile to his tone. “They pray for enlightenment and peace, that sort of thing, from what I understand. It’s not really praying to anyone, just a sense of peace.”

Nigel gave Will a look, and shifted his mouth a little at the new information. “Are you a fucking Buddhist, too? Is it genetic?” he teased.

Will laughed, shaking his head. “Not at all. I happen to find a lot of things interesting, but not necessarily want to practice them.”

“So, what do you believe, exactly?” Nigel asked, as he pushed the bubbling bacon around in the pan, and started to take other things out of the fridge while they talked.

“What I believe is more science fiction than religion, I think,” Will said, opening the door for the dogs, who pawed at it to be let out.

“Aliens and shit?” Nigel asked, and watched Will let the pack of dogs out onto the zen garden balcony to piss on whatever plants they could find.

“I wouldn’t say aliens, but you never know what’s out there, or who created us really. The universe is vast,” Will answered, shutting the door again to not let the warm air out.

“We’re animals, we can talk and we’ve got money, but when you peel all the bullshit away, we’re just animals. Nothing that special about us,” Nigel said, and flipped the bacon, strip by strip.

“Still, don’t you wonder if there are other animals like us out there? I like to leave my choices open. Closed mindedness is just ignorance,” Will shrugged, looking around the kitchen. “Can I help at all?”

“Chop onions,” Nigel nodded and pushed an onion toward Will. 

“You would give me the worst job.” Will took the onion and pulled a knife from the chopping block. He cut it in half first and then peeled the skins off.

“Closed mindedness is just ignorance,” Nigel quipped back with a smirk as Will took the knife. “Maybe the onions won’t be so bad…”

Will started to chop the onion, trying to keep his face as far away from it as possible, chancing a glance over at Nigel. “There’s a reason to pawned it off on me.”

“Maybe…” Nigel admitted, and pulled another knife out of the block to start working on potatoes. “I’m an asshole. I thought you figured that out.”

“There are worse things to be,” Will quipped, dicing up the last of the onions, and set them aside on the cutting board, his eyes red and watery.

Nigel took the onions and tossed them into the pan to cook with the bacon. “Like?”

“Serial killer,” Will shrugged again, and went to wash his hands in the sink, which did nothing for the smell left on his fingers.

“Define serial killer,” Nigel said, calmly, and watched Will’s hands under the water.

“Do you want the actual definition?” Will asked, scrubbing more soap into his skin under the hot water. “You don’t strike me as the type to kill in the same exact characteristic fashion. I’m if and when you do kill, it’s with purpose and passion, but hardly premeditated.”

Nigel thought it over for a moment, and started to use the side of his knife to move chopped potatoes to the side, expertly, obviously good with a blade, comfortable with it. “Fair enough. I’m … impulsive, at least Lee thinks so.”

“What do  _ you _ think?” Will asked, finally giving up on his hands and dried them on a dish towel.

“I think you sound like a shrink,” Nigel said, and pulled a pot out of a cupboard, filling it with water.

“I psychoanalyze criminals and murders for a living, it’s a little like a shrink, I guess,” Will answered, going to check to see if there was coffee in the cupboard he could put on.

“Have you ever killed anyone?” Nigel asked, bluntly and without pretense as he kept cooking, using his injured arm as much as he could.

“Yes. Recently. Little too late. Father killed his wife and daughter, I didn’t have to shoot him, but I did,” Will answered, as plainly as he could, and scooped coffee into the machine, and then went to get water from the sink into the carafe.

Nigel turned to look at Will at that, thoughtfully. “Did you like it?”

Will was quiet as he filled the carafe and then walked the water to the machine and poured it in. “Not at first, but there’s an undeniable power behind ending someone’s life.”

“Some people fucking deserve it,” Nigel agreed, “whether or not the law gives a damn about that.”

“This guy definitely deserved it. He was killing girls that looked like his daughter and eating them, using every last part of them,” Will explained, and turned the machine on.

“Jesus Christ,” Nigel sighed, and shook his head. “Anyone who goes after kids should have their balls torn off with pliers,” he spat.

“They were all of age, but they were someone’s child,” Will reasoned, pulling down three mugs, a little sugar tossed into his own.

“You shot a monster,” Nigel said, and looked out the window, at the dogs as they played. “As a different sort of monster, I can tell you point blank, it’s not a loss.”

“And what if someone wanted to shoot you, and call you one?” Will asked, sure that there were two sides to every story, but Nigel seemed like he had some ethics, some  _ class _ about his work.

“If I fucking deserved it?” Nigel asked, and shrugged his uninjured side. “But I sure as fuck don’t go after kids, I don’t kill anyone who doesn’t deserve it, either because they’re too fucking stupid to live, or too fucking mean.”

Will smiled at that a little bit, glad to hear his brother was in good hands, that he had nothing to worry about, not that he was worried, per se. Some people did deserve it, and that was something Will really struggled with. “I like those standards. That’s a good guide.”

Nigel caught something in the way Will looked at him, and stepped closer, lowering his voice. “I’d fucking shoot  _ myself _ in the head before I hurt Lee,” he said, quietly, but very, very clearly.

Will looked Nigel in the eye, not backing down, not the same person he had been when he helped save Lee’s life. “Good.”

Nigel looked back, their gazes locked for a moment before he nodded. “As long as we understand each other, then.”

“All too well,” Will said, and finally looked away as Lee entered the room, well over half an hour had passed, and his slightly longer hair that had been growing stuck up on one side.

Nigel turned to face Lee, his eyes softening as he walked over to him. “Sorry baby, got cooking, lost track of time…”

Will poured up coffee as Lee wrapped his arms around Nigel and nuzzled into his chest and neck. “That’s okay. What’s for dinner?”

“Nothing fancy, hashbrowns with bacon and onions,” Nigel said, and wound both arms around his husband. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah, nice little power nap,” Lee answered, stealing a kiss against Nigel’s jaw before letting go to snatch up a mug of coffee.

Nigel watched Lee with a little smile, and gave Will a look before he went to the stove to work on dinner. “Good. Probably needed it.”

Beauty whined a the back door, and Lee went to let her out with the other dogs. “Maybe,” he said, and watched Beauty with the dogs. “She’ll be lonely when they’re gone.”

“You two said you wanted a puppy, right?” Will said, sitting down at the small in kitchen table with his coffee. “I can probably find you one.”

Nigel looked back at Will and Lee, “where do you find all these fucking dogs, by the way?”

“Strays, but I know a shelter that takes a few from me to adopt out,” Will offered, sipping his coffee. “Puppies always go first, but if I ask them to keep me in mind, I’m sure they won’t mind.”

“Maybe one like Buster,” Nigel said, under his breath, as though admitting he liked the little feisty dog was a betrayal to himself. “He’s … not so bad. He has a personality, you know?”

Will chuckled. “He does. Saved him from euthanization. How anyone could not want him, I don’t know. I’ll look around for you.”

“Sure,” he said, but with the same tone with which someone would usually say thanks as he worked at the stove. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be openly grateful with Will quite yet. Nigel hated the feeling of owing someone. 

To Will, they owed him nothing, and never would, considering they were helping him now. Will shrugged, and Lee came over to sit with him, with his own coffee, a crease on the side of his face from the pillow.

Nigel decided the food was done, and put it on three plates, then carried them to the table and gave two to Lee and Will without fanfare. He grabbed his coffee, some forks that he dropped in the middle of the table and sat down to eat. “Do you still have to take drugs?”

Lee and Will both took up forks, and Lee patted Nigel’s knee under the table as a thanks. Will murmured a thanks as well, and then looked at Nigel. “I’m on medications still, yeah. Lucky they let me leave so soon at all.”

“Well, eat when you’re hungry, sleep when you’re tired, we’ll take care of the dogs. They love dragging Lee around the city for a run,” Nigel teased. The meal was simple, but good, like most of the things Nigel threw together. “He looks like he’s running a pack of wolves when he’s got them all.”

Lee grinned at Nigel as he stuffed food into his mouth with a hum. “I never get bothered anymore.”

Will laughed. “Only none of them but Buster would  probably hurt a fly.”

Nigel stopped eating and tilted his head. “You were bothered before?”

Will kept his head down and ate while the couple exchanged a look, and Lee brushed it off. “Not so much anymore. Back at my old apartment, the neighborhood wasn’t as nice as this one. There’s bound to be someone that wants to bother you.”

“But not since you moved, right?” Nigel asked, suddenly absolutely focused on Lee, like a sharp-eyed wolf.

“Considering I have you, the security, or the pack of dogs with me…” Lee mused, pushing hashbrowns around his plate. “No, I haven’t been bothered.”

“You’d tell me, right?” Nigel asked, quietly, his injured arm touching Lee’s shoulder.

“Yes. I have no reason to hide that from you,” Lee said, finally putting more food into his mouth, free hand on Nigel’s thigh.

“Good,” Nigel sighed, relieved, and leaned over to kiss Lee’s cheek before he resumed eating, his momentary defensive concern soothed, for now. His worst nightmare was something happening to Lee, either cancer, or … fuck,  _ anything _ .

After the scare with the police, it was certain that Nigel would worry about Lee, who could maybe handle his own, but he’d never really had to yet. “I promise…” Lee reiterated.

Nigel thought of teaching Lee to shoot, but … he knew he’d never actually shoot anyone, or anything. Lee was too kind, too compassionate, which was what made Nigel protect him so fiercely. “Okay, okay,” Nigel nodded, and touched Lee’s hand with his own, then looked at Will.

“Hell of a shotgun you had at the cabin,” he said, changing the topic … somewhat.

“Well you saw first hand the size of the bears,” Will offered, cleaning his plate of food for the first time in a week. “I also hunt, on occasion.”

Nigel grunted at that. “I think a blast from that shotgun would have just pissed the fucking bear that trashed my car off. He was fucking huge,” he chuckled. “What do you hunt?”

“Deer mostly, sometimes rabbits. I fish more than I hunt,” Will explained, and stood to take his dish to the counter.

“I’ve never hunted,” Nigel said, before he stuffed more food into his mouth.

“You have, it’s just different,” Will stated, and opted to help but cleaning up the pans.

Nigel laughed out loud at that, heartily, and drained his coffee before pushing the empty cup aside. “Don’t know if I would want to shoot an animal. They’re better than men.”

“I’ve never shot anything I didn’t intend to fully use,” Will explained, scrubbing the pan clean. “Again, I don’t do it often.”

“Well, if you ever get the itch to do my sort of hunting, I’m always hiring,” Nigel said, only half joking.

“One corrupt work force to the next?” Will laughed, shaking his head. “I’ll take my chances with the FBI for now, thanks.”

“Corrupt? I’m less fucking corrupt than the fucking FBI,” Nigel said, offended by the implication. In his mind, he was a fucking honest drug lord. He had  _ standards. _

“Everyone is corrupt,” Will insisted, and took empty plates from Nigel and Lee to wash, wanting to keep busy. “In some way.” He looked at Lee. “Maybe not you.”

Lee raised a brow and canted his head. “Not me?”

“You’re honest,” Nigel agreed, “sometimes painfully fucking honest,” he teased.

“There’s nothing wrong with honesty,” Lee pointed out, sipping on his cooled coffee.

“No, Baby, there isn’t,” Nigel laughed, and got up to get a beer from the fridge.

Will nodded. “There isn’t. Not enough people who are honest in the world, actually, Lee.”

“Not everyone wants to hear  _ everything,  _ but I like knowing I can trust what you say,” Nigel said, before tipping his beer back for a swallow.

Lee watched his brother and husband at that, well aware they were more alike than not, though Will was hardly anything like Nigel, he could tell in another world, perhaps, Will might have been.

“Is that to say I can’t trust what you two tell me?” he asked, teasingly.

“I’ve never lied to you,” Nigel said, solidly, and leaned closer to kiss the large, dark bruise on Lee’s throat from earlier.

“That’s true,” Lee said, holding Nigel there, and then looking into his amber eyes with a smile.

Nigel stared back, happily. His eyes always had more gold in them around his husband, more light than around anyone else in the world because Lee was his light. “Want a drink?”

“I’ll get it,” Lee said, and kissed Nigel once more before standing to trodd off to his little wine rack.

“I’d ask if you wanted a beer but your doctor might not like that,” Nigel said to Will, somewhat apologetically.

“Specific warnings about that causing issues. I don't really need more,” Will sighed and finished up, going to the door to let the dogs back in.

“We don’t need you slipping into a fucking coma, I’ll drink for you,” Nigel joked. A passing thought ran through his head that he’d get to keep Buster if Will was in a coma …

The dogs ran in, and chased each other around the huge apartment, full of energy. Buster stopped when he smelled Nigel’s beer, and sat at his feet with a little growl, then pawed at this leg to remind the drug lord that he wanted some of his drink.

Will laughed at that. “Sure you guys want a puppy and not a drinking buddy?”

Lee walked back in with a bottle of zin and started to uncork it. “We can train a puppy to be one…”

Nigel poured a tiny bit of beer in his hand and bent down to let Buster lick it up as he wagged his tail. He picked Buster up with one arm when he was done and let him sit on his lap. “He’s got good taste.”

“If… you want to adopt Buster,” Will said, taking a deep breath, he got very attached to his animals, “I… could do that.”

Nigel stared at Will for a second, surprised. “No. No, he’s your dog I’m not taking him away from you,” Nigel said, looking Will dead in the eye, but without any of his usual harshness.

“I always take in the dogs that no one else wants, no one else will adopt. The main point was to keep them until I found them homes,” Will said, spreading his hands. “Buster likes you.”

“He’s your dog. We’ll get a puppy. The other dogs would be pissed if you left him here,” Nigel said, as Buster licked the outside of his beer bottle.

Will shrugged; he wouldn’t push the topic further. Lee canted his head and smiled. “A puppy will be good.”

Nigel nodded, and fed Buster a little more beer, chuckling to himself every time he watched the dog enjoy it as much as he did. “He’s going to get a gut.”

“Lucky he won’t be here forever then,” Will said, going to put more water down for the dogs, and then shuffled off to his room.

Lee took his glass of wine and sat down next to Nigel.

Nigel watched Will walk off to his room, then looked down at Buster, who had curled up against Nigel’s chest. “I can’t take his fucking  _ dog _ .”

“Then don’t,” Lee said, sipping his wine, and curling into Nigel too.

Nigel sighed, and wrapped one arm around Lee, then turned his head to kiss him. “Will’s okay,” he admitted, finally. “Better not have any fucking coworkers come for a visit…”

“I don’t know that he has any…” Lee shrugged, not too sure of his brother’s personal life in general.

“So … he’s not dating anyone, not fucking anyone, no friends, nothing?” Nigel asked, under his breath. In that respect he was very different than Lee, who was so much more social.

“I don’t know about the fucking, I haven’t asked, I mean he’s been sick,” Lee reasoned, aware he didn’t even know his brothers sexuality at all.

“I have no fucking idea, and I can usually tell. Maybe he doesn’t like … anything?” Nigel suggested.

“Or hasn’t found that one person he does like,” Lee suggested, well aware Will was just in the next room. Lee never really concerned himself with people’s sexuality unless it had to do with his own.

“I wonder if he likes being that alone or it’s just what he thinks he needs so he lives like that,” Nigel whispered, thoughtfully.

Lee glanced up at Nigel, curling a little more into his side as he sipped his wine, nuzzling his neck .”With that empathy thing of his, maybe he feels he needs it.”

“What empathy thing?” Nigel asked, quietly. He … wasn’t sure he’d heard about it.

“Oh.” Lee furrowed his brow. “Will has an empathy disorder, he… feels too much of other people, in other words. He’s good at what he does because of it.”

“So … he can … what, like a psychic?” Nigel asked, confused.

“No. Not thoughts, just feelings mostly. He can relate better than most people, and put himself inside of someone else’s mind, but not their thoughts,” Lee explained, hoping he was getting it right.

“Shit…” Nigel murmured, and looked off into the distance as he wondered what the fuck Will picked up off of him. “So when he’s working on a case he … sort of imagines being in the killer’s mind, no matter how fucked up they are?”

“That’s what I gather,” Lee said, finishing his glass of wine, and then set it down on the coffee table. “He can do it with anyone.”

“Kind of like finding out someone you know has xray vision,” Nigel muttered, and drank again.

Lee rolled his eyes. “Are you afraid he knows you better than you know yourself?”

“Of fucking course not,” Nigel said with a roll of his eyes, too. “I just don’t like anyone getting to know me too fast,” he muttered. “It’s fucking creepy.”

“He can’t help it.” Lee kissed Nigel’s jaw and then stood, going to refill his wine glass.

Nigel watched Lee’s ass with appreciation, and sighed. “Neither can you.”

Lee laughed, bending over purposely, to pour the wine, and then came back, sitting near Nigel. “I can't?”

“Not with that ass,” Nigel sighed, and gave Lee a smouldering look. “I didn’t stand a fucking chance with you.”

“You know, I always thought maybe you’d have come back that day and take me in the back of the shop,” Lee teased, smirking at his husband up close.

Nigel groaned at the thought, and pulled Lee into his lap. “If you’d so much as fucking hinted that you wanted it, I would have taken you over the front fucking counter.”

Buster barked once and left to go find Will.

Lee licked his lips. “Maybe we’ll have to go in sometime soon and test that out. At the time… I didn’t want to seem  _ too _ desperate.”

Nigel smiled at that, and leaned over to kiss the side of Lee’s neck. “Fucking nostalgic, that’s sweet, baby. Maybe for an anniversary.”

“Oh, a romantic are you?” Lee grinned, but canted his head back to feel Nigel’s lips on his skin.

“I told you when we met, I’m a fucking romantic,” Nigel whispered and ghosted his warm lips up Lee’s long neck.

“I like when you prove it,” Lee whispered, crawling to straddle Nigel’s thighs.

“What’s your favourite way to have me prove it to you?” Nigel whispered back, and bit at Lee’s jaw, scraping his teeth.

“What way  _ don't _ I love?” Lee groaned softly, turning his head to capture Nigel’s mouth with his own, biting at soft lips.

“You are easy to please,” Nigel whispered, as he palmed Lee’s ass with both hands when their lips met.

“So long as you  _ please _ me,” Lee grinned against Nigel’s mouth, hips pushed forward into Nigel’s.

Nigel couldn’t help the way his body reacted to Lee’s even if he wanted to. He arched up, against Lee, heat starting to spread through him from his groin outward. Nigel’s hands held onto the sides of Lee’s hips, keeping him there as he ground up against him. “What would please you right now, little bird?”

“You fucking me right here,” Lee whispered, jaw dropped down and open, wanting to squirm against Nigel’s big, hot hands on him.

“Right here?” Nigel whispered back, softly, breathlessly, and bit the side of Lee’s throat before sucking Lee’s taste from his soft skin.

“Yes. I’ll ride you, so you won’t have to use your arm.” Lee’s eyes closed, a soft hum escaping past wine tasted lips.

Nigel unzipped his pants, and pulled Lee closer, his cock hard enough to free itself through the zipper. “So thoughtful…”, he moaned, and spanked Lee with his good hand.

“I have to be,” Lee  moaned, slipping sweats down his ass and thighs, and then sitting over Nigel’s lap again, palming his cock.

Nigel leaned back in his chair with a look of dark bliss on his face as Lee did that. He moaned, and dropped his head back to expose his long throat, muscles shifting as he swallowed.

Lee grinned and dropped down between Nigel’s thick thighs, and sucked him down, wet lips wrapped around the bulbous head of his husband’s cock. Nigel grunted, and spread his legs, hand in Lee’s short hair as he dragged his nails over Lee’s scalp. Lee hummed around Nigel’s cock and then took him all the way down once again, gripping his hips with both hands.

Nigel swore, quietly, and arched his hips, pressing himself into Lee’s mouth as he rutted into his wet heat. “Fuck … baby … “

Lee thoroughly wet Nigel and then crawled up into his lap, sliding in over his cock, wet and worked open from the twice prior just that day. Lee could not get enough. His hands wrenched into Nigel’s shoulders as he sank down, a heady moan escaping his lips.

“There-” Nigel moaned, and reached down to take Lee’s cock in his hand, stroking as Lee rode him in the kitchen chair. “There, baby…”

Lee’s head lolled back on his neck as he groaned, utterly lost to the feeling as pulsed through his loins and started to spread through his thighs. “Nigel-”

“... Okay, just coming to get… some water…” Will said, averting his eyes away from the couple as he walked through and grabbed a glass, quickly filling it with the tap water. “Don’t-- don’t mind me.”

Nigel realized only when Will spoke that he was there, and stopped moving immediately, eyes closed. “Fuck.”

Will kept his back to them and then kept his eyes on the floor once he got his water. “Sorry again, as you were,” he murmured.

Lee looked at Nigel, flushed and panting, but the smile that crept over his face quickly was followed by an all out laugh. “He was bound to at some point.”

Nigel picked up Lee’s shirt off the floor and used it to cover Lee from the waist down. “Yeah, we’re like rabbits,” he sighed, “bedroom, I think,” he said to Lee, as he dressed him a little more.

“Why are you afraid of my brother seeing me naked?” Lee laughed, slipping off Nigels lap, and pulling his sweats on. “We look the same.”

“He’s your brother I’m sure he doesn’t want to see your ass,” Nigel sighed as he did himself up and stood, flushed, one arm around his husband. 

Lee laughed and tugged Nigel to the bedroom once more and let Beauty in first, and then shut the door. “I’m sure he doesn’t, but it’s something he needs to get over if he’s living here for a while longer.”

Nigel sighed, and pressed Lee up against the door to claim his mouth in a rough kiss, then shook his head at him. “Do you ever get embarrassed? Just curious…” Nigel laughed, still kissing Lee’s neck.

Lee laughed again, cupping Nigel’s face as he dragged him back in for another heated kiss, slow and claiming. “Should I?”

“No,” Nigel whispered with a soft, delighted chuckle at his husband’s utter shamelessness. Lee had something pure about him, something that couldn’t be tamed any more than the wild part of Nigel could be tamed.

“Good,” Lee said with another kiss, biting Nigel’s lip. “I promise we won’t fuck in from of my brother again.”

“Or anyone,” Nigel said as he pulled Lee back, toward the bed. “Don’t want to share even the way you look while you fuck with  _ anyone _ else. That’s mine.”

“You didn’t complain when we were in your car,” Lee crooned, straddling his husband once again, shedding his sweats, and undoing Nigel’s belt. “Then again, we had just met.”

“No one was fucking looking,” Nigel whispered, hotly, and pulled Lee’s shirt off, quickly, then pulled him in by his shoulder for a hard kiss.

“There was probably a bum in the alley we were parked down,” Lee laughed, naked and writhing over Nigel, he pulled his husband’s pants off, and slipped back down over him.

Nigel groaned, and pulled Lee down over him, kissing him deeply as their bodies slid together again, both arms around Lee’s bare back, fingertips digging into his skin. “Some fucking wino…”

Lee rolled his eyes, Nigel’s cock hitting hip deep inside of him .”Watch your tongue or I’ll bite it off,” he teased, bending low to kiss and nip at Nigel’s lips and tongue.

Nigel rolled his eyes at his husband, and flipped him over in bed with a smirk, topping him with a hard kiss to shut him up, pleasantly. “You married an asshole, baby…” he purred, pressing himself into Lee, slow and deep.

“I know,” Lee said with a smile against his mouth, “I wouldn’t trade you for anything.” He reached around and slapped Nigel’s ass hard. “Now fuck me.”

“Bossy-” Nigel grunted, and pinned Lee down with his good hand, and another kiss as he started to fuck him with vigor, rocking the bed under them as his back and ass squeezed with every thrust.

“Because I’m the boss,” Lee chuckled, but it quickly quieted to a groan as he started to pant.

Nigel gave the side of Lee’s ass a hard, sharp slap for that, but his eyes smiled at him as he hammered himself into Lee, just the way they both liked it. “Shh…”

Lee knew very well he was one of very few who got away with what he said to Nigel and how he said it. He laughed a groan, hitching his hips higher. “Harder-”

He was the only one. Nigel tugged at Lee’s balls, twisting them in his hand as he fucked him with vicious passion, their eyes locked, dark on blue. Nigel never imagined he could be with someone who would make him insane with lust and laugh at the same time, but here they were.

Lee groaned, all but crawling out of his skin with pleasure, eyes blazing blue and dark up at Nigel. “Fuck, I love you.”

“Love you, too-” Nigel snarled, breathlessly, silver hair hanging in his dark eyes as sweat beaded on his bronzed skin. He gripped Lee’s cock, squeezing and stroking quickly, already able to feel it building in him.

Lee fell apart with that, his body ablaze, pushing up and down on Nigel’s cock, faster and faster until it all started to boil to a head. “Nigel-”

Nigel gritted his jaw, then groaned through it before he came, hard, even harder than usual. He heard himself almost shout Lee’s name as the climax ripped through him like lightening, hips still pistoning wildly as he fucked Lee through it.

Lee reached up and kissed Nigel hard as he came, biting the words out of his mouth before it could even leave his lips. Panting and writhing, Finally Lee slowed.

Nigel collapsed over Lee with a sigh, and began to plant slow, warm, reverent kisses up Lee’s throat, to his ear. “Never going to get tired of you …”

“I fucking hope not,” Lee groaned, with a chuckle, and kissed Nigel again. “I have too much to give.”   

Nigel sighed and leaned up, kissing his husband on the lips, slowly. “I’ll take every fucking last bit of it, happily,” he purred, between slow kisses.


	4. Chapter 4

The following morning, Nigel left to take care of some business after getting a call.    
  
Will’s phone was the next to ring.

Lee looked at Will’s phone as it did, and Will leaned over the table to grab it from where he’d left it. “Crawford,” he murmured, and stood, taking the call outside. He slid the screen bar to answer. “Hello.”

“Will,” Jack said in greeting, “how are you feeling? We just heard you left the hospital. I tried to send a …” he looked at the gift on his desk, “fruit basket.”

“How thoughtful of you, Jack.” Will sighed. “I was let out yesterday. I’m staying with my brother.”

“In Virginia?” Jack asked, his eyebrows raising just a little. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“New Jersey,” Will corrected,  rubbing his temple. “I didn’t either until not too long ago.”

“I … see,” Jack said, and picked up a pen. “Do you have anywhere I can send this? Bev put it together.” There was a little stuffed dog in the basket, as well, at Bev’s insistence.

“I’m not at liberty to say, Jack. My brother likes his privacy. He owns a dog wash downtown, I’ll text you that address,” Will offered, well aware neither Lee or Nigel would want their personal information exposed to the FBI.

“Well, okay, I’ll take that,” Jack said, intrigued. Will’s brother seemed even more reclusive than Will. “Hard to believe you’re the extrovert in the family…”

Will chuckled. “Lee’s pretty out there, but he’d been sick for a while, he likes the quiet for his meditation.”

“Meditation … nothing wrong with that. I’ll see what I can do about getting the basket dropped off around two, or so,” Jack said, as he looked at his watch.

“I’ll have Lee to pick it up at the shop, don’t want the fruit to go to waste,” Will suggested.

“Good thought. Well, get some rest and give me a call when you’re ready to return,” Jack said.

“Sure, Jack,” Will said and hung up. He went back inside and got the address from Lee and sent it off. “I’d rather Jack not know where you live, so if you could go get it and keep them from following you back…”

Lee raised a brow. “Worried about where we live?”

“Given what Nigel does. Jack’s nosey.”

Lee hummed thoughtfully at that. “Alright. I’ll go.”

A few hours later, Lee was waiting at the Dog Wash, looking over expense reports, leaned over the counter with a pen as the manager of the shop washed a pup in the background.

Jack Crawford walked into the shop, carrying a very large fruit basket with a stuffed golden retriever inside it, under the cellophane tied at the top with a big blue bow and a card. Jack spotted Lee, and did a double take, then approached the counter slowly, staring. “You  _ must  _ be Lee Graham?”

“Lee Fallon,” the twin replied, offering his hand. “Will and I were split at birth.”

“Yes, I can see that,” Jack said with a soft laugh and an astonished smile. Lee looked just like Will … except … happy. Jack shook Lee’s hand, warmly, and set the basket on the counter. “That is a remarkable story. I can’t get over the resemblance, sorry. How is he doing?”

Lee righted his position and looked at the basket with a cant of his head, and then back at Jack. “Much better. He’s still recovering, so he sleeps a lot. The dogs are good at getting him to do that.”

“We brought him  _ another _ dog,” Jack said with a nod at the stuffed dog, “please tell him that was Bev’s idea, not mine. He hasn’t really told me much about what happened, is there anything we can do to help? He’s very … “ Jack motioned his hand, “private.”

“Encephalitis,” Lee answered, poking at the little stuffed dog under the wrap. Cute. “Made his brain sort of melt, I guess. Well, not  _ melt _ but feel like it had been. Lucky I had gone to visit when I did, or he could be worse off now.”

“Very lucky. He’d been acting … erratic, for a little while,” Jack admitted, softly, leaning closer to talk with Lee, who was very easy to talk to. “If I asked about it, Will would just take more aspirin and brush me off. I was concerned, but not sure how to approach him. I’m … sorry if I missed something I shouldn’t have. With what he deals with at work, I tried to get him to work with a psychiatrist, but he found a way to outsmart and get rid of … well,  _ all _ of them.”

“Will deals with high levels of empathy, so that means he can see right through just about anyone, if he wants to, even psychiatrists,” Lee explained, setting down his pen. “Will didn’t even want…  _ my _ help. Took some convincing.”

“I’m sure it did … how did you get him to actually get help?” Jack asked with a little laugh, and shook his head. “I’m the  _ head _ of the behavioral sciences unit at the FBI … and I could not manage what you did.”

“We may not have grown up together, but we have a bond that is there. He was starting to see things that weren’t there, and he finally come to his senses,” Lee said, lying just a little after what Will warned him about, he’d keep Nigel’s name out of it.

“Well, I’m thankful that you did,” Jack sighed. “This is a nice little shop,” he said, looking around. “Yours?”

“One of them. I bought this place to keep me busy while I lived here to do chemo treatments. Now it’s just a business I run, check in on now and then,” Lee explained, turning to watch the manger dry off a fluffy poodle. “I own a wine bar in New Orleans, too.”

“Really? I remember Will saying he was from New Orleans. I bet it’s something,” Jack said, and looked around again.

“We were born there, split there. Amazing though that we found each other at all,” Lee said, “do you have a dog?”

“No, I don’t, I’ve always wanted one … my wife is harder to convince. She says we’re hardly home,” Jack said, and looked at the poodle.

“That’s a good point,” Lee remarked with a chuckle. “A cat might be better suited. Dogs are great, but they need companionship.”

“Maybe a cat in my office,” Jack said with a chuckle, just imagining a cat lounging on his files. “I could name him Edgar J.”

“That’s cute. The FBI office cat,” Lee shrugged. “I wish I could say we groom cats, but they are fickle and hard to bring in.”

“I thought they groomed themselves,” Jack laughed.

“They do. But they have claws you need to keep trim, teeth that should be maintained…” Lee explained with a smile. “Same for dogs, honestly. A nice brushing, too.”

“Well, I’ll let you know if I have any business for you,” Jack said. “Tell Will I said to get better soon.”

“I definitely will. I’m sure he… well he won’t be in contact, you know how he is,” Lee said with a little shrug, but a smile that suggested he’d of push the message on to Will anyway.

“Oh, I do. Nice meeting you. ” Jack chuckled, and waved at Lee before he let himself out.

Lee looked at the basket one more time before messaging Will that he’d be home in a bit, he was going to finish up paperwork at the shop first. Two hours later, he carried in the basket and set it on the table.

“Your boss like to interrogate.”

Will looked up from his coffee, obviously not surprised. “He does that. You’re lucky he didn’t shout at you.”

“At me?” Lee smiles innocent, and Will rolled his eyes. “He said the stuffed dog if from someone named Bev. A girlfriend of yours?” Lee prodded.

Will scrunched up his nose at that. “More like little sister.”

Nigel walked in, just in time to catch the tail end of the conversation. “You have a sister now, too? When’s she moving in?”

“No sister. Just a co worker who acts like one,” Will explained, opening the cellophane off the basket to look at the stuff inside of it. “Surprised they bothered at all.”

“What, no one likes you at work?” Nigel asked as he took a beer from the fridge and cracked it open.

“I keep to myself for the most part. Bev tries,” Will answered, tugging out the fruit and then the stuffed dog with a little smirk. “It’s cute.”

“You’re sure she doesn’t like you?” Nigel asked, with a little smirk, and sat down just before Buster ran in and jumped into his lap.

“Bev is like that with everyone. She’s not my type,” Will shrugged, tucking the dog under one arm, and smiled over at Nigel and Buster. “Sure you don’t want to adopt him?”

Nigel just rolled his eyes and let Buster have a little beer from his palm. “We fucking talked about this already,” he muttered.

Will let it go with a wave of his hand, just trying to take the edge of the topic of relationships. “Okay, okay…”

“How did they get the basket here?” Nigel asked, as he noticed it, really noticed for the first time.

“Had Jack take it to Lee’s Dog Wash, and then Lee met him there to pick it up,” Will explained. “I didn’t want him bringing it here.”

Nigel looked back over at his husband. “No one followed you here?” he asked, as he pet Buster with one hand.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Lee said, but he did have some of Nigel’s men tailing him a lot today, so it was hard to say.

Nigel frowned a little, and stood with Buster to look out of the window, then went onto the balcony, and looked over it.

“Your men followed me!” Lee said, suddenly feeling like maybe he should have paid a little more attention.

“They’re always following you,” Nigel said as he came back inside, and sent a text. 

Will’s phone rang again, this time, from Bev.

Will sighed, slumping down into a chair once more, the dog under one arm still, and picked up his phone. “Thanks for the dog.”

“You have a TWIN?” Bev exclaimed into the phone, no hi, no hello. Jimmy could be heard in the background telling Will that he was welcome to the twin club.

“Yes, I do. I… only found out about a year or so ago,” Will murmured into the phone, not bothering to leave the room this time.

“Why didn’t you tell us? That’s insane! A secret twin is even better than a  _ normal _ twin,” Bev said. “Who’s the evil twin? You? Him? Jack said you’re identical. We need a picture.”

“We-- we are, if you’ve seen me you’ve seen him. He has shorter hair is all,” Will explained, closing his eyes. “We’re very different, but neither one of us is evil, Bev.”

“Oh, whatever. What’s he like?” Bev asked, as she made herself some coffee.

“Opposite of me. Very likeable. Very positive. Meditates. Drinks wine,” Will sighed, and Lee gave him a cherishing look, which Will rolled his eye at.

“Oh man, I have to meet him. Is he single?” Bev asked. The sound of her stirring her coffee could be heard over the connection.

“Uh, no. He’s married and gay,” Will said, giving Lee a look.

  
“Well of course he is,” Bev sighed. “Still want to meet him.”

“Maybe when I’m feeling better we can meet for coffee,” Will suggested, cringing at the very idea.

“Yes, of course!” Bev exclaimed, obviously quite happy with that. “What’s his name?” She sat at the break room table with her feet up on another chair.

“Lee.”

At that Lee smiled over at his brother, the prodded him under the table.  
“Tell Lee I said hi, and we’ll have coffee when you’re feeling better. Jack said you’re in Jersey? Wow … what about the dogs?” Bev asked, concerned. The dogs were like Will’s kids.

“They are all here with us,” Will said, looking over at Buster in Nigel’s lap. “Yeah, Lee lives in Jersey for the most part. I was at the hospital in town.”

“Wow. Yeah you looked pretty rough. Do you remember me telling you to see a doctor?” Bev asked, pointedly. 

“I don’t remember a lot of things, it’s a pretty blurry,” Will admitted, holding the stuffed dog a little closer.

“Did you get Fluffy?” Bev asked with a laugh. Winston trotted up and sniffed the stuffed dog, curiously.

“That’s what you named it?” Will asked, looking at the dog, and then Winston, letting him sniff, and then even take the dog away from him. “Winston has claimed it as his own.”

Winston carried the stuffed dog like a baby, by the back of it’s neck, and took it into the bedroom to put to bed. “Awww, Winston! Hey, that was for you, not him. Yeah. Fluffy. Wow, your brother must have a big place with all the dogs. What does he do?”

“He drinks wine, sells it, grooms dogs for fun,” Will chuckled, rubbing a palm over his thigh.

“You lucked out. My brother is a urologist. How the hell does that help me? I wish he sold wine… OH,” she said, as though just remembering something, “I found a momma dog the other day in the parking lot. She had her puppies out there and everything.”

Will perked up a little at that. “Oh? Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’ll be okay. The puppies are crazy, I’ll send you some pictures, they’ve been out there for weeks, poor guys. There’s only two of them left, I think the other ones must have died unless Jack Russells only have two?” Bev asked.

“Smaller dogs, but doesn’t mean she didn’t.” Will looked at Nigel and Lee, and whispered: “Puppies.”

Nigel raised an eyebrow, and his eyes widened, just a little, but he shut down the expression, quickly. 

“Yeah, so there are two, a boy and a girl and then Momma will need a home … do you have room for the Momma? I’m sure someone will take the puppies…” Bev said.

“My brother wants a puppy for sure, the mama I can keep if no one will take her,” Will promised.

“Okay, that’s great. Boy puppy or girl puppy?” Bev asked, with relief in her voice.

“Boy or girl?” Will asked them both, and Lee just shrugged reverting it over to Nigel.

“Whichever,” Nigel said, and looked over at Beauty. “Boy. We have a girl already,” he decided, and petted Buster, who was almost asleep on him now.

“Boy,” Will said to Bev once the two decided. 

“Okay. I’ll send you a pic. How is Thursday for coffee, maybe I could bring him?” Bev asked, hopefully.

“I’ll try to be feeling much better by then,” Will offered, “Thursday.”

“See ya!” Bev said, and hung up. 

“Who the fuck was that? You were fucking chatty,” Nigel commented with a smirk.

“Bev. She never shuts up,” Will said, putting the phone down. “You’ll get your puppy on Thursday when Lee and I go for coffee with her.”

“Just like that?” Nigel laughed a little, and looked down at Buster. “Sorry, you’re being fucking replaced,” he joked, and finished his beer.  “Where are you meeting this Bev?”

“Not sure. I’ll text her closer to Thursday.” Will went back to his now cold coffee with a sigh. “I’d invite you to come, but she works for the FBI.”

“Yeah, I fucking figured,” Nigel said, dryly, watching Will closely. Will didn’t know a lot of what Nigel did, but … enough to cause trouble if he wanted to.

“My world and yours do not mix,” Will said, spreading his hands on the table. “But I don’t want to see either of you in trouble or in the grasp of the FBI.”

“Good,” Nigel agreed, with a nod, and a certain amount of relief in the way he held his shoulders. “ _ Nobody _ wants trouble,” he said, as he stood to saunter to the fridge, with Buster in his good arm.

“I’m the last person to start a fight with family,” Will said, and went to refresh his coffee with more.

Lee smiled over at Nigel. “And you were worried.”

Nigel set Buster down to open his drink, “I never worry,” he said, dryly, and closed the door with a graceful movement of his foot.

“Mhm,” Lee said, leaning over to pull out an orange from the basket and started to peel it.

  
***   
  
Thursday came quickly enough. They arranged for a place to meet, a cafe not far away from the penthouse for Will’s sake. Bev waited in the cafe with a dog carrier next to her on the seat as she browsed through her phone.

Will and Lee arrived in a car, neither one of them driving, and Lee got out first to help Will, who just gave him a look. Will was thinner from being sick, but obviously feeling a lot better. Will smiled a little at Bev as he took a seat and Lee offered his hand to her.

“I’m Lee, so nice to meet you.”

Bev stood up and shook Lee’s hand, then gave Will a friendly smack on the arm. “Nice to meet you too Lee, I cannot believe you didn’t even mention you had a twin,” Bev sighed at Will, but smiled. “You look better, though.”

Lee took a seat. “We haven’t been close until recently,” Lee said, for Will. “He helped me out through my cancer treatment, he did some donating so I could live. That’s how we found out about each other.”

“Oh my god, that’s amazing. How did you find out about each other?” she asked, then sipped her coffee.

“Had some of that genealogy stuff done,” Will murmured, as Lee got up to get them both some coffee from the front counter. “Dug around a lot.”

“That’s incredible,” Bev said, and nodded at the puppy carrier. “Can you see him through the door? He’s sleeping I don’t want to move him. He’s pretty barky when he’s awake.”

“Cannot be worse than Buster gets,” Will chuckled, leaning down to see the sleeping puppy. Lee came back and set the coffees down.

“Is that him?” Lee asked, crouching down low to look. “Look how cute!”

The puppy was tiny, black, white, and brown, curled up in a blanket, sleeping soundly as his belly rose and fell. “Yeah, I decided to take the girl puppy,” Bev said with a smile.

Lee melted inside as he watched the small thing, and knew immediately that Nigel was going to love him. “He's perfect.”

Will gave Bev a look. “You're keeping one?”

Bev laughed, “I wasn’t going to but she is so cute. She crawled right into my arms. I was done. No contest!”

“Do you still need someone to take the mama?” Will asked, curiously, always willing to take another.

“Yeah, she’s going to need a good home. She’s been through a lot. She had a bad infection when I took her in but she’s better now, poor girl,” Bev sighed, and showed Will a photo of a sweet-faced Jack Russell mama with big, dark eyes.

“She’s beautiful,” Will said, looking over the pretty mama. Will barely took care of himself, but he always managed the dogs. “I’ll gladly take her.”

“She’s got a sweet personality, she just likes to be close to someone and be petted,” Bev said with a sigh, then put her phone down. “So, do you already have any dogs? Does dog hoarding run in the family?” she asked Lee, cheerfully.

Lee sipped some of the coffee and nodded his head. “One dog as of right now. Beauty. She’s a German Shepherd.”

“Aww. How’d you get her?” Bev asked, curious about Will’s friendly brother. It was like seeing Will if he’d had a different life completely.

“Stray,” Lee said, though not the best liar ever, he said that one with a straight face.

“Do you have a picture of her?” Bev asked, after a sip of her coffee.

Lee got out his phone and flipped through pictures to find one of just Beauty and then leaned to show Bev. “She’s the best nap buddy too.”

“Awww,” Bev said with a smile at the picture. “Hard to believe she was a stray, she is gorgeous. Is she more your dog, or your husband’s?”

“Husband found her, but she’s more my dog after all the cancer treatments. That’s why we’re getting him the puppy,” Lee explained, putting his phone away.

“That’s cute. What kind of cancer did you have?” Bev was easily just as chatty as Lee, and very curious.

“Melanoma,” Lee answered, never having had a problem talking about it, and it wasn’t as though it were something he had to hide either.

“That’s a bad one, isn’t it?” Bev said, sympathetically. “Kills most people. My uncle had it and he lasted a few months, that was it. It’s pretty amazing you survived…”

“I fought it for over ten years. I was stage five when I met my husband, and he was very adamant on me surviving. So, here I am,” Lee laughed, and sipped on his coffee.

“Oh my god. So … you met him and you were … well, pretty much  _ dying _ ?” Bev asked, stunned. 

“Yes. I had a no attachments rule, but he didn’t really listen. We both fell hard and fast, we were going to live in the moment, but then that moment turned to hospitals and chemo…” Lee shrugged, “Went to Germany and did a whole thing there, that’s where Will came in, and basically saved my life.”

Will flushed a little at that. “You had a dog, I couldn’t let the dog be without you.”

“How did you save his life?” Bev asked Will, eyes wide, then realized what a twin could do. “Oh, oh, bone marrow … stem cells, right?”

“Right,” Will answered. “I donated, stayed there for a little while, and then took their dog back with me while Lee underwent the last of the treatment.”

“Is that how you guys met?” Bev asked, gesturing between the brothers.

Lee and Will both nodded. Lee spoke up first; “He met me at not my best, and still wanted to help anyway.”

“That is so sweet,” Bev sighed, and gave Will a gentle kick under the table. “And you didn’t tell anyone ANY of this.”

“Why would I? We just work together,” Will murmured. “It happened just before I got the job with Jack.”

“It’s a great story,” Bev pointed out and shook her head. “And we’re friends. Look at us, out for coffee, like  _ friends _ .”

“I feel like I was bullied into this,” Will said, almost teasingly, and Lee nudged him.

“That’s what friends do,” Bev said with a smile, and looked at the carrier when the puppy whimpered, but then went back to sleep. “So, Lee, I have to know, how did you meet your husband? It sounds so romantic.”

“I own a dog wash, and he brought in Beauty for a wash. I gave him my number and he asked me to dinner,” Lee explained, leaving out little details.

“That’s sweet, what’s his name?” Bev asked, with a smile.

Will gave Lee a look, who quickly blurted out “Leon” before thinking about. Nigel looked nothing like a Leon, but Bev was  _ not _ going to ever meet Nigel, so it hardly mattered.

“Leon?” Bev repeated, and nodded. “Leon and … Lee. Huh. Cute couple name. Is Fallon your last name or his?”

“Mine.” Lee was mentally kicking himself and Will looked ready to kick him, too. Lee knew Nigel would find out about this and it would just be the worst…

Bev was no empath, but she could tell that something was … off. “Nice. Who proposed?” she asked, smiling again.

“He did,” Lee answered. “We got married in New Orleans while we were there checking on my wine bar.”

“Does he like wine? Must be nice to married to a guy who owns a wine bar. What does Leon do for a living?” Bev asked, endlessly curious.

“Security. He doesn’t prefer wine, but I’m working on it,” Lee shrugged, already feeling like he needed to go home and cleanse these lies, but it was this or risk Nigel getting caught up with the FBI.

“Nice, private security?” Bev asked, and noticed Lee was sweating a little, just around his hairline. “Does he work for a firm?”

“Himself, one of those people who you hire, and he sends you private security. I… guess that’s a firm?” Lee shrugged a little more, the coffee churning in his stomach. Will reached over and patted his hand, softly.

“So … he …” Bev tilted her head, a little confused. “So he runs the security business?” she asked, helpfully.

“Yes.”  Lee put his coffee down and excused himself inside to the bathroom, leaving Will with Beverly.

“Lee doesn’t handle interrogation well…”

“Sorry,” Bev sighed. “Bad habit. I didn’t mean to make him feel uncomfortable,” she said, and drank her coffee again. “So, is Leon nice?”

“To people he likes,” Will said, honestly.

“So … like you?” Bev teased.

Will rolled his eyes, fiddling with his cup. “I guess. I’m not that bad am I?”

“Kind of. You don’t let people close very easily. Sounds like you could have  _ died _ , we wouldn’t have known…” Bev pointed out.

“Until Jack came calling because I didn’t answer,” Will said, “And never came into teach again.”

“I would have missed you,” Bev pointed out, with a pointed look.

“Terrible for you,” Will teased, and Lee came back, a little pale, but less sweaty looking.

“Everything okay? Bev asked, and opened the puppy’s crate when she heard him moving around. She pulled the puppy out, and handed him to Lee with a smile. “Will this help?”

“Yes, sorry…” Lee took the puppy, “Yes,” he said with a half hearted chuckle, and Will got up to go get Lee some water, returning with two of them, one for himself.

“Sorry if I get a little nosy,” Bev said, “occupational hazard.”

“My husband is very private is all, and I don’t like saying much without him here,” Lee answered, without giving much away.

“That’s okay,” Bev said, and reached over to pet the puppy, who was pawing at Lee’s shirt. “Any idea what you’re going to name him?”

“I’d leave it to myself, but he’ll tell me to do it myself,” Lee sighed, petting the puppy as they snuggled together. “Could just call him Beast to go with Beauty.”

“That’d be cute,” Bev laughed, and watched as the curious puppy butted his shiny black nose against Lee’s chin, then gave a little bark at him before starting to bite his shirt.

Lee laughed, far from the mood he was in when he returned, and moved the puppy’s teeth from his shirt. “He’s going to be trouble.”

The puppy licked at Lee’s fingers, then tried to chew on them, and gave a big yawn and a stretch. 

“Yeah, I think the name Beast might be a good one,” Bev laughed.

Lee smiled and got out his phone to take a picture, titled it with the dog’s name, and sent it off to Nigel. “Picture for Daddy…”

“Are you guys planning on having kids?” Bev asked, then stopped herself. “Sorry, sorry  …”

“No, no. No kids. We babysat once, that was enough,” Lee answered, shaking his head.

“Yeah, me too. My nieces and nephews are enough,” Bev sighed.

“It was a nightmare.” Lee laughed and Will gave them a look. He liked kids, even wanted a few, or just one, someday.

“How old was the kid?” Bev asked, grinning with Lee. “My nephew put gum in my hair. I had to cut it out.”

“Eight months. Explosive diapers and all,” Lee laughed, lightening up again.

“I work with dead bodies but baby diapers?  _ No _ …” Bev laughed.

“It couldn’t have been  _ that _ bad,” Will murmured between them.

“Have you ever seen a baby with a bad diaper?” Bev asked, one eyebrow raised at her coworker. “Wait, change that,  _ smelled _ a baby with a bad diaper?”

“No,” Will admitted, but didn’t think it could be that bad.

“It’s terrible. We almost sprayed him down in the backyard,” Lee commented.

“It’s … god, your eyes just water sometimes,” Bev said, and took a gulp of her coffee. “I helped my sister with her first baby. After that I just mostly helped with bringing over takeout.”

“We were babysitting for a  friend, we don’t intend to never do it again,” Lee explained, because he would consider Charlie a friend, even if Nigel didn’t.

“Maybe when they’re older? Talking?” Bev asked with a laugh. “Drinking age?”

Lee laughed. “Old enough to drink some wine, maybe. Then we can have a conversation.”

“That sounds good. Too bad this place doesn’t have wine,” Bev sighed.

“If you’re ever going to New Orleans, let me know, I’ll hook you up,” Lee offered, petting the puppy against his chest as he snoozed lightly.

“That sounds like a good reason to go to New Orleans,” Bev smiled, and took a picture with her phone of Lee and the puppy, then showed both Will and Lee. “So cute.”

Lee smiled. “It’s not always a party there, but we try.”

“Mardi Gras sounds amazing,” she said, and sent the picture to Will, without asking.

Will rolled his eyes. “You know it’s just a lot of naked partying and drinking right?” He looked down at his phone and gave Bev a look. “Are you sending this to everyone?”

“Yes,” Bev said, as she sent the photo of Will’s adorable twin and the puppy to everyone at the lab. “Naked partying and drinking sounds great to me after a long week.”

Lee looked over to see the picture on Will’s phone with a smile. Everyone just assumed Will had no family, and this likely changed how they saw him, though to Lee that wasn’t always unfortunate.

“Sometimes it can be. We should do a weekend trip with your co-workers, Will,” Lee said, though how he was going to explain  _ that _ to Nigel.

“That’d be fun,” Bev said with a big smile, and kicked Will under the table, softly. “If you don’t mind a bunch of boring scientists.”

Will gave Lee a look, well aware of how this was not going to work out well for him, but then smiled meekly over at Bev. “You aren’t boring,  _ I’m _ boring.”

“You’re not boring. You’re mysterious and difficult,” Bev teased with a wink at Will.

At that Lee laughed, and patted Will’s shoulder as the puppy whimpered against his chest. “She has the difficult part down.”

Bev laughed, and shrugged her shoulders as she finished her coffee. “I just call them like I see them.”

The car that dropped them off rolled back to the street and parked, clearly waiting on them, and Lee sighed, touching Will’s arm. “It’s been great to meet you, Bev. I hope Will doesn’t keep you from us having coffee, or wine, again soon.”

“Great to meet you, too. Yeah, wine next time for sure. Wow … you have a  _ driver _ ?” she said, admiring the car. 

“I don’t drive, and Will isn’t well enough,” Lee reasoned, picking up the puppy in his arms. “Thank you so much for Beast.”

“No problem,” Bev said, and stood to pocket her phone. She gave Will a smile. “Rest. Get better. Message me.”

Lee waved and Will offered an awkward smile back and then let Lee ushered him into the car. Once in, Lee waited for Bev to leave first before telling the driver to go. Bev watched Will and his brother for a moment, then left the coffee shop, waving as she walked to her car.

Will sighed and looked over at Lee as the car took off. “You can’t house a party in NOLA, Nigel will flip out.”

Lee shrugged. “Nothing says I have to be there to properly host.”

The two grew quiet at that, and soon they were home again, and Lee carried up the puppy past the guards and up to the dog filled penthouse.

The dogs crowded around Lee, sniffing eagerly at the baby in his arms, especially Beauty. Nigel hung up his phone, and strode over, looking at the two of them, then the puppy. “So, this is Beast?”

“Yes,” Lee said, holding the pup closer to  _ his _ beast for him to see. “Isn’t he precious?”

Beast looked up at Nigel, blinking his big, dark, shiny eyes, and barked at him, twice, which made Nigel laugh as he reached to take Beast into his large hands, and held him to his chest. Beast climbed Nigel’s chest, and started to chew at the tip of his nose, which made the Romanian break into a booming laugh.

Will and Lee exchanged identical smiles, and then Will walked off to get the dogs out to the patio for now to get some time outside while he made their food.

“He’s perfect, right?” Lee laughed, petting the puppy now in Nigel’s arms. Beauty whined at their feet, also interested.

“He’s pretty fucking cute,” Nigel laughed and crouched to let Beauty smell her little brother all over, wagging as she did, just as she wagged when she met the baby they’d taken care of a while ago. “Just bites me on the nose, right away…” Nigel seemed amused by the tiny puppy’s lack of fear of him.

“You’ll want to put a stop to that though,” Will said from the kitchen, and Lee shrugged his agreement.

“Beast…” Nigel murmured at the puppy, which made the puppy whimper and start to bat a paw at Nigel’s moving chin, which made him laugh harder, and sit on the couch with the feisty thing. 

“He’s definitely your dog,” Lee said, going to put out another bowl of water for the puppy and some food that was easier to eat.

Nigel laid on the couch, and Beast stood on his chest, then tried to pounce on some of Nigel’s chest hair where it peeked through his open shirt. “He’s sure as hell not intimidated,” Nigel laughed, trying to get the puppy to leave the dense hair alone, which of course made the puppy a little more obsessed with getting it.

Lee wandered back in, watching with a smile. “You better let him know who that belongs to.”

Nigel was smiling at the little puppy, utterly charmed by him, and tugged at his ears before he flipped the puppy over with one hand, and rubbed his belly where the puppy laid on his chest. “He likes it almost as much as you do…”   
  
Beast growled softly, but stretched out for the belly rub, wagging upside down.

Lee shot his husband a look from behind him. “By the way, your name is Leon on now.” He walked back out.

“Leon?” Nigel asked, confused. “Why the fuck am I Leon, now?”

“I couldn’t give your real name,” Lee explained as he went through the wall closet, calling back to his husband.

Nigel stood up smoothly, carrying Beast in one hand against his chest as he found Lee. “Leon? Do I look like a fucking _ Leon _ to you?”

Lee stood up right again, a bottle of riesling in his hand. “No. I was put on the spot. It was the first thing to come to mind that didn’t sound… Romanian.”

“Did you used to know a Leon?” Nigel asked, mouth quirking to one side, eyes dark. Beast started licking at the stubble on his chin, and Nigel relaxed a little.

Lee gave Nigel a scrutinizing look. “No. I have never known a Leon.” He walked into the kitchen where Will was putting food together for the dogs, and picked up the wine key to open the bottle in hand.

“What else did you have to make up about me?” Nigel asked, following Lee into the kitchen as Beast nibbled at the collar of his shirt.

“What you do. I told her you owned a private security business. She was pretty nosey,” Lee sighed, frowning down at the bottle as he uncorked it. He sniffed the cork and then set it down, and grabbed a glass from the shelf.

“Fucking nosy people,” he sighed, and grabbed a glass for himself, setting it down for Lee to fill. “What’d she want to fucking know?”

“She was curious about us because we’re related to Will,” Lee shrugged, and poured them both some of the white wine. “I think she believed it.”

“Fucking hope so,” Nigel sighed, but focused on Beast with a little smile. “No reason for her to fucking drop by or start poking around.”

“She doesn’t know where we live, and we have security,” Lee murmured as he smelled his wine first and then sipped it. He felt bad for lying, it never agreed with him. “Then there’s no fucking problem,” Nigel murmured back, and kissed the back of Lee’s neck just under Lee’s cropped hair.

Lee reached to touch Nigel’s side for a moment, resting their heads together, and then nodded. “Yeah.” He took his glass out to watch the dogs outside, Beauty following after him for now since Nigel had the puppy she wanted to cuddle.

Will looked over from the stove, thoughtfully. “I shouldn’t have put him in that situation. Having to lie.”

“Was he believable?” Nigel asked, as he watched Lee through the big windows. Lee was honest, he was incredibly honest. Nigel knew lying was not one of his skills, even when he had to do it.

“To a point. I think Bev just thought he was… nervous?” Will shrugged his shoulders, and turned the stove off, moving the pot, carefully, to strain. “He lot a little sick to his stomach about it, I think.”

“Did he puke?” Nigel asked, his head turning to look at Will.

“I don’t know. I didn’t go with him,” Will replied, honestly. “I got him some water when he got back. He seemed better.”

“Shit. Did she want to visit again?” Nigel asked, and shifted his jaw to the side, displeased.

“She does. Lee offered a wine extravaganza in NOLA if she wanted, along with the rest of my co workers,” Will murmured. “I don’t know if he is aware that Bev will find a way to take him up on that.”

“He wants to take them on a fucking trip?” Nigel asked, incredulously.

“He offered it if they were there, he would make sure they had wine, not that he’d be there,” Will explained, realizing that maybe this was not best coming from him.

“Jesus Christ …” Nigel muttered, and closed his eyes for a second, then downed the rest of his glass of wine. “Lee.”

“I can try to deflect Bev, don’t worry. She’ll find something else interesting and I’ll… make sure she does,” Will offered, trying to fix this.

“You can find something more fucking interesting than free wine in New Orleans?” Nigel asked, and poured himself a glass of something strong and amber.

“Murder cases.” Will went back to what he was doing, mashing the steamed food all together.

“I could manage a few of those,” Nigel said, darkly, and downed a third of his drink.

“I think my boss is already curious, it might be best if you don’t lend a hand there,” Will said, and started to spoon the steaming stuff into bowls for the dogs.

“What do you mean by that?” Nigel asked, his eyes locking on Will at the mention of his interested boss at the FBI.

“Your alias, the… ring you have going, the FBI is on to it. They don’t have anything concrete on you though, so they can’t do anything,” Will explained.

“Sounds like you’ve already looked into it,” Nigel growled, and finished his drink in one swallow, then fixed Will with an intense stare.

“I’ve been asked about it, told them it wasn’t my area of experience,” Will said, watching Nigel carefully. “Lee and you mean a lot to me. I don’t have family otherwise. I’m not going to risk either of you if I can help it.”

“They’ve already fucking asked you about me?” Nigel asked, softly and with a dangerous sort of calm, eyes glinting.

“They asked me to look at a case. You're the subject. I said nothing about you,” Will said, calmly. 

“When the  _ fuck _ did they do that?” Nigel asked, stepping closer, his voice still as quiet as the sound of the hammer of a gun pulling back in a dead room.

“When I first starting doing cases for them. Months and months ago,” Will insisted. “They didn’t ask after that. I do murder cases, not crime lords.”

Nigel took a slow, deep breath through his nose, then licked his lips, and relaxed, but still held Will in the focus of his stare, like a bear deciding whether or not to eat a deer. “They’ve got fucking nothing on me?” he asked, confirming what Will said as he stared into his eyes, smart enough to know if he was being lied to.

“They know who you are, what you do, but you’re legit all across the board. You’ve covered your tracks, and for that they can’t do anything. They hoped I’d be able to figure out something you hadn’t covered, but as I said, that’s not what I do, and I wouldn’t even if I did,” Will sighed, setting the now empty pot into the sink to wash.

“Something tells me you’re better at lying than Lee is,” Nigel said, as he stared at the back of Will’s head, his eyes going, by habit, to the spot at the base of the skull in which he’d have to lodge a bullet to kill someone, instantly.

“No one believes me even when I’m not lying. My… ability enables me to mimic people, to get inside of them and tell them what they want to hear, the way they want to hear it. I can be their best friend for a second, and that’s all I need,” Will said, well aware that he was giving up a lot of his personal self to Nigel just to make peace.

“Is that what you’re doing to me? Pretending to be my best fucking friend?” Nigel asked, bluntly, under his breath.

“You have Lee for that. I wouldn’t be telling you what I was doing if I was trying to do it,” Will insisted, washing the pot.

“No, you wouldn’t …” Nigel agreed, and watched Will, carefully. Will wasn’t acting like he had anything to hide. Will wasn’t nervous. Nervous people set Nigel off like meat in front of a dog, he could smell fear on them. Will wasn’t afraid. 

He relaxed his shoulders, finally, and poured two drinks, one very, very, very small, only a sip, and one larger. He put the small drink in front of Will, aware he couldn’t have more than a taste right now, and picked up the larger one with the hand of his damaged arm.   
  
“Do you know how my arm got this fucked up?” he asked Will, with less malevolence in his voice.    
  
Beast whimpered in his sleep and Nigel let him lay on his shoulder, against Nigel’s neck, supporting the puppy with one hand, drinking with the other.

“Trouble back home, I imagine. Lee didn’t say, but you’re from Romania, there was some shit that went down there not long ago,” Will mused, mostly, and took the drink, not having had one for a while, he took the sip down and let it linger and then burn down his throat with familiarity.

“Someone was trying to take me down where I’d started everything. I had to go deal with it myself. They massacred my men. Once I take someone in, once I know they are part of my team, they’re fucking taken care of. I don’t take that shit lightly. Yeah, someone gets unlucky, sometimes. That’s part of the fucking job but … no. Whoever this was fucking gunned them down, surprised them. I was pissed.” Nigel downed most of his drink, then looked at the amber left in the glass as his mouth pressed into a thin line. 

“It was someone I’d been friends with … back when I had no fucking friends. He was trying to take it for itself. I found out when he slipped up after a few drinks, mentioned something he wasn’t supposed to fucking know.”   
  
He looked up at Will, locking their eyes.   
  
“I don’t trust people. I trust Lee the most. This guy? I didn’t think he’d fucking do that… We fought, he shot me through the fucking arm, and I made a fucking example of him. No one back home is going to fucking cross me again after what I did to him. They had to know … you fuck with the stag, you get the fucking antlers. He had this fucking … deer head in his place, on the wall by a chair so he could put shit on it, like a table. He loved it. Ugly fucking thing with big fucking antlers on it like trees-” Nigel gestured.   
  
“I picked him up, and  _ threw _ him on it. That’s how fucking pissed I was at that fucking pig. The antlers went right through, like fucking swords. I stood there, watched him die, and left him like that, and I’m not fucking sorry. It was a slow death, he suffered. I enjoyed it, I got to finish his drink while he died. He took something of mine, I took something of his.”

That had been a case Will was also asked to look in on, but he’d been so sick when they found it, he’d not even been able to look at the picture without seeing it come to life. He swallowed, licking his lips as he set the glass down finally, watching Nigel as silence filled between them for a long time. Will wasn’t hallucinating anymore, but he definitely saw something in Nigel that was different, he couldn't place it honestly, but something was off, not in a bad way.

“Did you take anything else of his?” Will asked, the question slipping out before he thought it over.

Nigel licked his lips, and looked at Will. “His lungs.”

Nigel finished his drink slowly, staring at Will as he did, daring him to say something about it. He wouldn’t be surprised if Will knew about it. Nigel had his men remove all traces that he’d been there, but take Darko on the deer head to the empty dance floor of his nightclub, and leave him there, like that: impaled on the stag head, and lungless, a spotlight on him with the rest of the club in darkness. 

It had definitely made the news. Thank god Lee didn’t like the news.

Will dried his hands and then the pot, and set it down on the counter. Nigel was dangerous, yes, but methodical too. That made him even more dangerous. “Did you… what did you do with them?”

Nigel gave Beast a little kiss on his back, then put him on the counter on a clean towel that he could snuggle into. He focused on the puppy as Beast settled back to sleep, and heaved a big sigh before he closed his eyes again. Nigel cracked his neck and used his good hand to pour another drink, in no hurry to do anything right now. He was  _ calm _ .

“We were going to go for lunch, and he owed me a fucking meal after all that. I was fucking hungry. He had a kitchen right there…” Nigel said, factually, and looked at Will, meeting his eyes, daring Will to recoil in disgust.

“No wonder you looked at me so odd when I said I saw a Wendigo when I looked at you, because you  _ had _ eaten people, well one anyway, part of him,” Will said, just as calm, feeding off Nigel’s mood.

“I don’t fucking do it every day,” Nigel said, and took a swallow of his drink. “Don’t fucking tell Lee. He wouldn’t want to know.”

“That’s not my place to tell him.” Will shook his head, turning to face Nigel as he leaned against the counter the little.  “I don’t find it odd. I get the feeling it’s suited to you. Like a glove.”

“It wasn’t any different than other meat,” Nigel said, and shrugged his good shoulder. “A little better, maybe. I fucking doused them in the rest of his bottle of booze and tossed a match in at the end. It felt …  _ right _ .”

Will nodded slowly, aware that now Nigel wasn’t just a crime and drug lord, he really was a murderer. So long as it stayed off American soil, he could pretend he never knew. “I won’t say a word to Lee, I promise.”

“I need you to fucking swear, Will,” Nigel said, directly.

“It’s not my place to tell him. I swear I won’t,” Will promised, even if it hurt a little to keep that from a twin he’s found out about not long ago.

“Good,” Nigel nodded, and finished his drink before he stroked his hand over Beast’s side as he slept. “Lee doesn’t like knowing the details.”

“Probably because he doesn’t know how to lie about them,” Will suggested, canting his head. He realized this whole thing must have been  _ very _ trying on Lee.

“Exactly. The less he knows, the better his life is,” Nigel said, and looked outside at where Lee was playing with the pack of dogs, and smiled a little at him.

“I’ll get Bev and the others off him, promise,” Will sighed, and went to set all the bowls out on the porch for the dogs.

Nigel watched as Will joined Lee on the balcony, and then looked down at Beast where he slept, and petted his head with two fingers before he finished his drink and picked Beast up to carry him outside, against his chest. The puppy didn’t even wake up, he stayed limp and heavy, sleeping against Nigel with all the trust in the world. “You don’t care what I ate, do you, boy?” Nigel whispered to him, and kissed the top of his head before carrying him outside to join Will and Lee.

Lee looked over at Nigel and walked over, looking at the sleeping pup. “He trusts you.”

“He’s tired,” Nigel murmured, as he turned his head to look at the pup with a little smile. “He’s pretty fucking cute,” he admitted, softly.

“You don’t think much is cute,” Lee laughed, and kissed Nigel’s cheek.

“Usually just you, but look at his fucking little ears,” Nigel laughed, a little in love with the puppy. He’d never had a puppy before, no one had ever thought he was the sort of man who should be trusted with something so delicate and loveable.

“He won’t get much bigger than Buster,” Will chimed in. “Just more filled out, defined dog features.”

“He doesn’t have to be a big guy. He’s tough,” Nigel chuckled as he cupped his hand around Beast’s back to keep him warm from the breeze. “Buster’s a tough son of a bitch, too,” Nigel said to Buster, who was tilting his head at the baby.

“The little ones usually are,” Will insisted, and and went back inside to leave Lee and Nigel time to talk, if they wanted it.

Nigel let Will walk off, and smiled a little at Lee. “You okay?” he asked his husband.

“Yeah, of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Lee asked, petting the small head of the puppy.

"Will said you looked pretty fucking stressed earlier,” Nigel said, softly.

“He did?” Lee sighed, not wanting to worry Nigel about anything. Lee could handle his own, in most situations, but lying and being put on the spot had left him nerve wracked.

“He said you looked sick to your stomach,” Nigel said, stepping closer to his husband as the breeze blew his ashy hair into his dark eyes.

“A little,” Lee confessed, shrugging. “It wasn’t a big deal, she was very… pushy.”

“Sounds like a pain in the ass,” Nigel said, protectively.

Lee shrugged and turned to pet the dogs, bending low. “I hadn’t felt that sick to my stomach in a long time.”

“I didn’t want you to have to  _ lie _ because of me,” Nigel murmured, quietly, regretfully. He didn’t regret what he did, only how it effected Lee.

“What else was I going to do?” Lee asked, looking up at Nigel.

“Nothing. You had no choice,” Nigel said, and leaned closer to kiss his husband. “You’re a fucking angel.”

Lee stood to meet Nigel halfway. “I wouldn’t say that.”

“I fucking would,” Nigel said, and pressed their lips together, still holding Beast to his chest, securely.

Lee grinned, and kissed Nigel a little deeper. “Thank you, in that case.”

Nigel took the kiss, gratefully, and deepened it before he pulled back to look at Lee, just look at him. If Lee knew … if he found out the details of what Nigel was capable of … Nigel wasn’t sure what would happen. “I love you.”

Lee smiled, beaming, much happier and brighter now that they were home. “I love you, too.” He sighed. “I might have offered wine and stuff to them for NOLA. I panicked.”

“That’s okay, baby. We’ll fix it,” Nigel said, not angry at all now that Will had warned him where he might have lost it if Lee surprised him with it.  “Say the place is being renovated for a while, send a bottle of wine, they’ll forget eventually.”

Lee was starting to realize that it was only Will they’d be able to spend time with, not his friends, because his friends were not good for Nigel or Nigel’s business. And That was fine, Lee could find other friends, if he really wanted them.

“Okay…” Lee sighed.” You’re not… mad?”

“No, baby,” Nigel said, with a shake of his head. “Shouldn’t have put you in that position. You get stressed as fuck when you lie, not your fault.”

“I don’t-” Lee stopped himself and shook his head. “I do. I don’t like it.”

“You won’t have to do it again, okay?” Nigel promised, and kissed Lee on the lips, softly. “Not for me.”

“You can’t promise that,” Lee said with a little smile. “I’ll work on my lying.” He’d try anyway.

“I’ll do fucking everything I can to make sure you don’t have to lie again, alright? Good enough?” Nigel asked, fondly. He loved Lee, more than he had ever loved anyone or anything else. Lee eclipsed it all.

Lee nodded and kissed Nigel again over the puppy, and then moved to his side to hugged him without squishing the poor thing. “Good enough.”

Nigel smiled a little, and leaned against Lee carefully until the puppy whimpered, too hot between them when they were so close. “Fucking love you.”

“I fucking love you, too,” Lee said and then let go, not wanting to suffocate the pup. “We should get him a little bed.”

“He can sleep on our bed. He won’t take up much room,” Nigel said, starting to head back indoors.

“Him and Beauty?” Lee laughing, opening the door for everyone, the dogs all piling in one by one first.

“Why the fuck not? He’s smaller than one of the pillows.” Nigel pointed out as they walked to the bedroom.

“Good thing he won’t get much bigger,” Lee laughed, and walked behind Nigel, following him in.

Nigel never thought he’d be the sort of guy who would insist that a dog sleep on his bed, but … here he was. He laid down on the bed, with the pup on his chest, and raised his head to watch him as he kept sleeping. “He didn’t even wake up,” Nigel whispered.

“Just a baby,” Lee said, with a little smile, Beauty jumping up on the bed to put her head on Nigel’s shoulder to watch the baby. Lee got in beside them, with a chuckle. His little family.

Nigel hadn’t been crazy about the human baby they’d had to take care of for a while but Beast was actually cute. “His ears,” Nigel chuckled, and wrapped his damaged arm around Lee, carefully.

Lee curled into Nigel and kicked his sneakers off the side of the bed, and then sighed heavily as he grew content there. “He’s really cute. Only good thing about today.”

“Yeah?” Nigel asked, his head turned toward Lee as he watched him. “That bad, huh?”

“Day is still young, it could get better,” Lee crooned as he kissed Nigel’s cheek.

“Yeah?” Nigel purred, and nuzzled Lee’s cheek in return.

“Whenever you find yourself not on puppy duty, that is,” Lee grinned, not at all jealous, he loved the puppy, just maybe not as much as Nigel.

Nigel smiled over at Lee, and licked his lips. “Still waiting for my backrub…”

“It’ll squish the puppy,” Lee chuckled.

Nigel got up and put Beast on one of the dog beds they bought for Beauty. He made sure that the pup kept sleeping, and pulled his shirt off, then came back to bed.

“All of it off,” Lee said, grabbing the massage oil from the nightstand, and started to warm it up in his hands.

Nigel smirked and pulled off his jeans, too, and kicked his boots and socks off, then laid on the bed on his stomach, naked. “Better?”

Lee hummed his approval and drawled over Nigel’s ass, sitting on it. He drizzled the warm oil over his back, and then used his palms to spread it into the muscles, from spine outwards, slowly. “Much.”

Nigel sighed, his good arm under his head as the smell of the oil filled the air. “Definitely worth having all those dogs here, already,” he sighed.

Lee chuckled lightly as he pressed and pulled skin and muscle, moving everything around easily, and then digging thumbs and knuckles into rougher, harder muscle to loosen it up. “Good. Just relax.”

Nigel sighed out a deep groan, and nuzzled his face into the pillow. “Christ, you’re good at that.”

“So you’ve said,” Lee whispered, and kissed Nigel’s ear as he worked his hands down his sides, over the small of his back.

“Could be a professional…” Nigel mumbled, relaxing a little more with every touch.

“No. I have a very jealous husband who would hate if I touched other people for a living,” Lee countered, inching down Nigel’s ass where he sat and replaced his weight with his hands.

Nigel laughed at that and groaned as he felt a couple of his bones pop at the relief of the massage. “You poor fucking thing…” he purred.

“I don’t think so. There’s only one person I need and want to touch,” Lee whispered as he placed a kiss to the small of Nigel’s back, rubbing knuckles into his ass muscles.

“He’s a lucky son of a bitch,” Nigel moaned, and arched up against the touch just a little, the muscles of his thigh and back flexing as he did.

Lee worked his hands down taut muscles, slowly, over Nigel’s rump and then his thighs. “He knows it.”

“Good,” Nigel moaned, and stretched his long legs under Lee’s hands, smiling to himself, blissfully. “Those hands of yours…”

Lee bent and bit Nigel’s round ass once, smirking to hims as he did. He worked capable fingers down his legs, slowly, to his feet, which he turned around to do.

Nigel groaned at the bite, then melted into the bed when Lee rubbed his feet. “I had no idea that would feel so fucking good.”

“You hold a lot of stress all over,” Lee mentioned, and crack each toe on each foot, tugging at them gently.

“Had no fucking idea…” Nigel murmured, almost feeling drunk with relaxation at this point.

“Gonna fall asleep on me?” Lee asked, quietly, working his hands back up Nigel’s legs.

“I’d better fucking not,” Nigel purred, able to feel his cock hard under him, against the bed.

“I hope not,” Lee purred as he crawled back up Nigel’s back side, slipping out of his jeans and sweater, tossing them to the floor so that when he straddled Nigel’s lower back again his own hardening cock pressed against it.

A low, pleased rumble started in Nigel’s chest and he looked over his shoulder at his husband, with dark eyes. “You really fucking like massaging me…”

“I love getting to touch you everyday any way I want to,” Lee whispered as he peppered kisses up Nigel’s neck to his ear.

Nigel stretched out his neck and rolled over underneath Lee so that they were facing each other, then pulled him down into a slow kiss. “Well don’t fucking stop now…”

Lee rocked his hips down against Nigel’s, their cocks rubbing together as their mouths met in a slow kiss, and reached for more oil. He spread his hands across Nigel’s chest with a grin against his lips. “I wouldn’t dare.”

Nigel braced his heels into the mattress and arched up, rutting against Lee’s cock with a sly smile. “Damn right you fucking wouldn’t,” Nigel whispered and kissed Lee again, biting his lips as he did.

Lee rutted down, groaning as his hands messed through oil slicked hair on Nigel’s chest. “Never.”

Nigel reached down to grip them both at once, and stroked them together as they writhed and kissed. “Ride me…”

Lee smiled, breathless at the thought,  and reached for the lube, slathering Nigel with it, and then slipped two fingers into himself for a little stretch.

Nigel moaned and stroked the lube between their cocks as he watched Lee. “So fucking pretty when you touch yourself like that…”

Lee batted his eyes at Nigel for that, and did it for only a few seconds longer between replacing his fingers with Nigel’s cock, slipping down on him slowly, flushed.

“Fuck-” Nigel moaned, as he pressed himself up, slowly, into his husband’s body, locking them together, finally. He stared, and ran one hand down Lee’s chest and stomach before starting to undulate his hips, slowly.

Lee bit his lower lip as he rutted down on Nigel’s hips, taking him as far as he could, pressed tight against his prostate, causing him to flush deeper down his whole body. “Nigel…”

“Gorgeous,” Nigel moaned as he stared at Lee, and watched Lee impale himself on his cock. He gripped Lee’s cock with one hand, stroking as he thrusted, unable to lie still.

Lee’s head lolled back on his head and then forward again as his body heated beautifully, gazing down at Nigel. “More.”

Nigel snapped his hips upward, harder, and tugged Lee’s balls as he began to fuck him in earnest. “Yeah?”

Lee ground where Nigel pressed up, leaning back a little to take it right to the sweet spot. “Yeah… fuck.”

Nigel slapped Lee’s ass, hard enough to make the sound of his palm against Lee’s ass sound like a whip snapping as he drove his cock deeper into him. “Gonna come for me, baby?”

“Daddy-” Lee breathed at the spank, heightening his senses as his body writhed and spiked with heat, sending a shrill of lust down his spine, spreading across his lower back. “I’m-”

“Come on, come for Daddy-” Nigel growled as he fucked Lee from beneath, powerful thighs working hard as he did so.

Spilling over Nigel's fist, Lee came blindingly hot, eyes squeezed shut for the blissful few moments that everything else seemed to drown out. He panted, hands on Nigel's chest.

Nigel followed as he watched Lee come. He swore, in his first tongue, and ground himself deep inside his husband as he climaxed hard inside him, shaking and sweating.    
  
Once the beautiful violence of their orgasm was over, Nigel pulled Lee to his chest, and held him with both arms, as tightly as he could. “Lee,” he whispered, breathlessly, in Lee’s ear.

Lee loved the way his name sounded rolled off Nigels accented tongue. He hardly ever called Lee by his real name, making it hard not to smile against his chest when he did. “ I love you,” he whispered back, nuzzling against his chest.

Nigel used Lee’s name sparingly, because it was too good to use every single day. He kissed Lee’s temple, and rubbed his back. “Love you, too. Dunno what the fuck I’d ever do without you.”

“You’d be grumpy dog owner,” Lee teased, softly, catching his breath as he laid over Nigel.

Nigel sighed, and kissed Lee, again. “That’s a fucking understatement.”

Lee nuzzled against Nigel’s nose as they kissed, settling in against him. “Good thing you aren’t without me.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We wonder if you guys have figured it out yet, we left a bunch of clues in the last chapter about Nigel... what say you?

Days later, Will’s phone rang again, early in the morning, which he reached for, groggily, and looked at it, and then slid the bar to take the call. “It’s pretty early, Jack.”

"Yeah, I know … I thought you were a morning person,” Jack said, into the phone with  heavy sigh as he looked at a photo that crossed his desk.

“Usually,” Will sighed, and sat up, rubbing his face as the dogs stretched out over his feet and on the floor around the bed. “What can I do for you, Jack?”

“I’ve got a case, from INTERPOL,” Jack said, and looked through the photos again. “They’ve hit a dead end and they want to close in on someone for this. That … deer killing, the one that looked like the shrike a while ago. I’ve got new photos on it. Everyone else is coming up short, and the media is running with this one. Not every day someone’s found on a stag head in their own nightclub. Even for Romania, that’s … a lot. When you were sick you said no, how about now that you’re better?”

Will let that information sink in, and rubbed a hand over his face. As he sat in the exact house of the man who did it, who  _ confessed _ to him doing it. “It’s just one killing, Jack, of a known drug dealer, mob lord… Is it really something people are worried about?”

“The victim had ties to the mob, but he wasn’t a dealer,” Jack said, looking at a file. “It’s captured the public’s attention, all over the world. They want to say they tried, Will. You’re our … expert. I’m just asking if I can send you the photos, take a look, see what you can see.”

Will sighed. That would at least give him time to find some sort of excuse. “Yeah, go ahead and email them if you want.”

“Alright. How are you feeling these days?” Jack asked, as he sent the photos to Will’s email on his laptop.

“Better. Finishing up the rounds of all the medication they put on me. I at least don’t feel like my brain is melting,” Will murmured, waiting for the emails.

“That’s a relief. Call when you’ve had a chance to have a good look with a clear head,” Jack said, and nodded at someone who walked into his office.

"Yeah, sure, okay,” Will said, and clicked the email and hung up on Jack. This was going to be the start of a very bad day.

The files arrived in Will’s email with a buzz on his phone, just waiting to be reviewed. In the kitchen, Beast gave a couple short, high-pitched barks, a sure sign that Will’s brother in law was up, and making coffee. Will took it as a sign to gather his laptop and go out. He was in sweats and a robe, moving a little easier today, less achy. He sat his laptop on the table, all the dogs following him, gathering at his feet as if not wanting Will to go far without them.

“Mornin’.”

Nigel grunted his reply, and set a cup of black coffee in front of Will as the dogs crowded around him to wag and say good morning. “Hungry?”

“I could eat,” Will said, looking around for Lee. “He still asleep?”

“Yeah,” Nigel nodded, wearing boxers and a t-shirt, his silver hair a mess as he started sausages, and gulped down coffee. “What the fuck are you doing up so early?”

“Phone call from Crawford,” Will sighed, clicking open the emails now that he was sure Lee wasn’t up to see accidentally. “He’s asked me to go over the case of your buddy, Darko. I told him I didn’t think it was a huge deal, but because your friend only had ‘connections’ to the mob, it’s a bigger case than expected.”

Nigel rolled his eyes at the thought. “There were a fucking ton of people who wanted him dead,” he said, flatly. “Part of the mob or not, that makes it hard to fucking solve.”

“It does, but hasn’t stopped him from sending me the crime scene photos to try and wrap my head around,” Will said, opening each one, skimming them over. He didn’t have a weak stomach, thankfully. Looking at them, they were… beautiful, in it’s own right, for a murder.

The body had been photographed first, just as it had been found: under a spotlight on the dance floor. Darko was naked, his clothes cut off, and his chest was cut open between where it had been impaled by the stag’s antlers. 

Nigel looked over, and walked to Will, looking at the photos over Will’s shoulder without a hint of regret. “So … what do you think?”

“Artistic,” Will murmured, leaning in on one hand as he scrolled through different views.

Nigel nodded and sipped his coffee as he looked at his oddly beautiful revenge. “He loved to be the fucking center of attention. He had to be the bride at every wedding, the baby at every fucking baptism, the corpse at every goddamned funeral.”

“Then you gave him the perfect send off,” Will chuckled, unable to help it. Yes, he liked solving murders, but this one didn’t seem as innocent as the others he helped on. The Shrike was one thing… He almost wished he could blame the Shrike on this one, but unfortunately, Hobbs was dead already.

“He’ll be fucking remembered, I made sure of that,” Nigel muttered, and went back to the stove to shift the eggs and flip them over in the pan. He browned slices of the sausage, individually, and the smell started to fill the kitchen.

“Got anyone else you want out of the picture you could possible frame for this?” Will asked with a sigh, not sure what else he could do at this point and Jack was going to want something.

Nigel licked his lips, and thought about that after giving Will a slightly surprised look. “There’s a guy, yeah …” he said, and took a careful look at the closed bedroom door, behind which Lee slept.

Will chewed the inside of his cheek. He couldn’t believe what he was about to suggest. “Has he killed before? I might suggest having someone else killed and presented in this same manner but distinctly leave something of this other person at the crime scene.”

“He’s a fucking pimp,” Nigel said, “runs a ring of kids. He’s killed, lots of people, anyone who might try to take a little off the top. I shot him, twice. He’s a fucking coward, always runs.”

“Darko ever buy any kids off him?” Will asked, bitterly, the taste wasn’t pleasant in his mouth, and he could feel himself wanting this sort of revenge now for this guy. Kill two birds with one stone. “I mean, does he have reason to have killed him?”

“He fucking better not have,” Nigel muttered, and thought it over. “But he could have. Maybe some girl who looked older than thirteen,” he said, an expression of disgust on his face. “Darko ran  _ women _ in his club, not girls, but … hey, shit happens, right?”

“That could be the case,” Will offered, nonchalantly. “Whatever you think will work.”

“You’re the expert, can you make them buy that?” Nigel asked, looking at Will over his shoulder. 

“If you can get me one or more other murder scenes that match up to this one, and you’ve been here the whole time, I can lead them that direction, yeah,” Will explained, shutting down the pictures.

Nigel shifted his jaw, and thought it over as he licked his lips, and made a plate of food for Will. “Give me a couple days, I can get it done.”

“I can stall Jack until then.”

The door to the bedroom opened then, and Lee stepped out, in his running shorts and sneakers, a long sleeve shirt on.

Beauty stretched and went to Lee right away, with the rest of the dogs who were eager for a run. Most of them danced between Lee and the elevator, excited.

“Morning, gorgeous,” Nigel said with a smirk, and walked over to kiss Lee.

“Mornin’,” Lee murmured, much the same way Will had, and leaned into kiss Nigel, and hugged him around the shoulders once.

“Breakfast before your run?” NIgel asked, as he hugged Lee to his chest, squeezing him with both arms.

“Yeah. Starved,” Lee said with a little grin, looking over Nigel’s shoulder. “Sausage?”

“Yeah, ran out of bacon,” Nigel said, and kissed the side of Lee’s cheek before he let him go and dished up two more plates of food, adding toast to Lee’s before he brought them to the table.

Lee grabbed two mugs of coffee and then sat down, putting on in front of Will. “Working?”

Will nodded, glad now that he steered away from the pictures when he had. “Yeah. They just won’t leave me alone.”

“As long as it has nothing to do with us,” Lee teased.

Nigel sat down, and gave Lee a fork, then a kiss on the cheek as Winston brought his leash to Lee, hopefully. “Someone’s eager,” Nigel chuckled as he picked Beast up, and let him sit on his lap as he ate.

Lee smiled and gave Winston a pet. “Let me eat, guys. Seriously.”

Nigel tore up a piece of sausage into many parts, whistled at the dogs, and scattered it a few feet from him with a toss of his hand. The dogs swarmed around the treat, and Nigel started to shovel food in his mouth after feeding Beast a tiny piece.

Lee ate slowly, not wanting to upset his stomach before a run, and Will went quiet as he worked out a few notes to send to Jack later on, to at least make it seem like he was trying.

“Did we wake you up?” Nigel asked his husband, letting their legs touch under the table as they ate.

“I heard talking,” Lee admitted, shrugging his shoulders as he stuffed more sausage into his mouth and chewed slowly. “Figured I’d just get up.”

“Sorry, baby,” Nigel said fondly, and watched Lee’s face for a moment before he took a swallow of coffee. “Thought you could use a sleep in.”

“Gotta start the day at some time,” Lee offered with raised brows and finished off his sausage and then took another sip of coffee. “I’ll be back.” He kissed Nigel’s cheek as he stood, and then got the leashes and started to get all the dogs together.

The dogs rushed over to Lee, and let him hook them to leashes, happily, some of them barking softly.    
  
“Okay, baby, be safe,” Nigel said, watching Lee from the table with a slight furrow in his brow.

“Always am,” Lee said, and off he went with heard of dogs, the puppy staying behind with Nigel, snuffling at his feet.

Nigel scooped him up with one hand, again, and looked at the closed door after Lee left, then stood, and pulled out his phone, speaking into it in Romanian for about ten minutes when someone picked up.

Will kept to himself, finished eating, and then stood to clean up, leaving Nigel to do his business. Once done, he took a cup of coffee and his lap top out to the balcony. Lee came in about twenty after that, letting all the dogs back off their leashes.

Nigel had long since hung up the phone, and was cleaning his gun on the kitchen table, with the puppy on the table, sniffing at the pieces. “Good run?”

Lee nodded, covered in sweat, and toed his shoes off, leaving them by the door. “Yeah, they took me all over the park.” Nigel stood smoothly, and helped Beast off the table, putting him on the floor to go play with the dogs as they gulped down water from their dishes. He walked closer to Lee with a smirk. “I can tell,” he said, and ran his hand over Lee’s ass.

“Yeah, I might need a shower,” Lee said, trying not to get all his sweat all over Nigel as it dripped from his neck and his shirt clung to his chest.

Nigel tugged at Lee’s sweaty shirt, and looked back at where Will was working on the balcony, unaware. He stripped Lee’s sweat-soaked shirt off of him, and ran a hand down his chest. “Now so do I…”

“Look at that,” Lee said with a little smile, biting the inside of his bottom lip, hands resting on Nigel's waist.

Nigel loved the way Lee looked when he came back from a hard run, and did nothing to hide it. He dragged him back toward their bathroom, kissing his way up to Lee’s ear. “If only there was a goddamned thing we could do about it.”

Lee could never resist Nigel, not when he was like this. “If only,” he gasped, walked backwards until he hit the counter, and toed off his socks.

Nigel palmed Lee’s ass, greedily, and kissed him again, harder, as he undid Lee’s shorts and pushed them down his lean, sweaty legs.

“This works too,” Lee groaned, and pushed Nigel’s boxers off and then tugged his shirt over his head, completely forgetting the snippets of conversation he overheard earlier.

Nigel seemed eager to forget that Lee had almost walked into the middle of it, and wanted to lose himself in the feeling of being close to him, instead, kissing him hard as he let Lee undress him.    
  
He reached over with one hand hand started the shower as he reached down and started to stroke Lee, slowly, with his good hand.

“Nigel-” he groaned, and tugged him into the shower, under the spray, happy to be lost in his husband like this.

“I fucking need you,” Nigel whispered, breathless already with lust as he pressed Lee against the cool, tiled wall and lifted one of Lee’s legs over his hip.

Lee let out a breathy moan as he squeezed his leg over Nigel’s hip, spreading himself open that way to give his husband entrance. He reached for the bottle of lube kept on the sill, and slathered his fingers in it, working himself open. “Take me.”

Nigel didn’t waste a second. He pressed himself into Lee while he tangled their tongues together and held him with both arms, like he was gripping desperately, trying to keep Lee from falling out of his reach as he conjoined their bodies.

Nigel allowed himself a moment of throbbing relief, and then began to thrust.

“Daddy…” Lee managed, murmured against his Nigel’s lips as they kissed, harder and sloppier as their bodies undulated together under the hot spray, steaming up the room.

Nigel rested his forehead against Lee’s, consumed with the fear since Lee left for his run that maybe Lee had heard, maybe he’d leave now. He stared at him, water clinging to his eyelashes, and thrust harder, fucking him hard enough that it felt like a fire was going to burst to life between them. “Baby…”

Lee needed time with the information, but right now none of that was consuming him as heat boiled through him and his loins felt like Nigel was lighting a match under him. “Harder…”

Nigel picked both of Lee’s legs up, wrapping them around his waist and holding them there as they fucked, ignoring the pain in his arm from it. That didn’t matter right now. Nigel bit Lee’s throat, hard, just over the nerves along the side as he slapped the side of Lee’s perfect ass.

Lee started to fall apart with that, gripping hard to Nigel’s shoulders, as he tensed and burned through his thighs, coming between them. “Nigel-!”

“Lee,” Nigel moaned, over and over as he felt his entire body tingle and squeeze before he came, deep inside Lee, still pinning him against the wall as he kissed his lips with a shaky mouth and rolled his hips to press deeper and deeper inside him.

Lee panted, letting out one last moan into Nigel’s mouth before feeling himself go loose limbed. “Fuck… you do have a way of distractin’ me.”

Nigel smiled, and kissed Lee again, then very slowly let his feet touch the floor. “You sweaty was distracting in the first place…”

“Distracting from what?” Lee asked, coy.

“Cleaning my fucking gun,” Nigel replied, with a softer kiss, and a nuzzle.

“That all?” Lee sighed softly, feet back on the ground, and grabbed the shampoo, running it through Nigel’s hair.

“Some business shit,” Nigel said, as he tilted his head against Lee’s hands, with his eyes closed, one arm still around Lee’s waist.

“Mmn,” Lee hummed, letting it go for now. He rubbed his hands into Nigel’s hair, massaging in the soap.

Nigel watched Lee as he massaged him, and swallowed before he tightened his grip around Lee’s narrow waist. “Would you ever … leave me?”

Lee shook his head slowly. “No. I wouldn’t. I made a promise.”

“No matter what?” Nigel asked, seriously, and felt his heart speed up a little. “There’s nothing I could do that is so fucked up that you would want to leave?”

“No matter what,” Lee answered, quieter this time, his jaw shifting a little, worried.

Nigel stared into Lee’s eyes, holding the gaze for a long, long moment before he kissed his lips, again, softly, and held Lee more intimately, one hand against the back of Lee’s head. “Okay…”

“What’s wrong?” Lee asked, intuitively, gazing into Nigel’s amber eyes.

“Will was given a case about something I did in Romania,” Nigel admitted. “He’s going to protect us.”

“With Darko?” Lee asked, well aware of what it was, just not the details.

“Yeah, with Darko,” Nigel answered, and shook wet hair out of his face as he looked at his husband. “Everything is going to be fine … but it’s fucking ugly, the details…”

“Details…” Lee sighed, helping rinse out Nigel’s hair.

“I was  _ pissed _ ,” Nigel said, simply, and bowed his head to let Lee wash his hair. “I made sure no one would forget what happened to fucking backstabbers.”

“Got it,” Lee whispered. “Sorry you had to.”  
“It was personal, not just business. I felt betrayed,” Nigel sighed, and rested his head against Lee’s, and cupped Lee’s face with both hands, then kissed him. 

“Sorry you lost a friend then,” Lee whispered again, and melted right back into Nigel.

“Thanks, Baby,” Nigel whispered back, and nuzzled him, gently, hugging Lee to him under the spray of the shower. “You’re the only one I really need. I think losing you would fucking  _ kill _ me …”

Nigel temper and the the things he was capable should scare Lee, but it only scared him to the point of knowing it could be their undoing if Nigel were to be caught. “You won’t lose me. And Will is helping fix this how?”

“He’s going to tell them someone else did it,” Nigel said, still holding Lee closely. “Someone who deserves to get the attention.”

“That’s okay with you?” Lee asked, quietly, fingers digging into Nigel’s chest hair.

“The guy he’s giving them pimps out fucking children so, yeah, I’m fucking okay with it.”

“Oh.” Lee went quiet at that, and wrapped his arms around Nigel instead. It was unsettling, and he hadn’t heard everything, but maybe that was best.

Nigel hugged Lee, his head resting over Lee’s head as he held him. “Everything will be fine.”

“You’re the one worrying,” Lee insisted.

“Maybe,” Nigel admitted, softly, and nuzzled Lee as he took a deep, deep breath, and let it out, slowly.

“I love you. Whatever happens, we’ll get through it,” Lee whispered, positively.

“Don’t start watching the news now,” Nigel said, with a half smile at his husband.

“There’s enough shitty things going on in the world to keep me from watching,” Lee insisted with a little smile back, and turned off the water, pressing his palm behind him to do so.

Nigel kissed Lee’s forehead, relieved, and stepped out of the shower to hand Lee a towel. “Fuck, me too.”

Lee took the towel and dried himself off, limb by limb first and then his torso and hips. “I know that I say I don’t want to know… I just don’t like secrets between us either.”

Nigel sighed, watching Lee before he dried himself off. “How much do you want to know? What if you have to fucking lie about it?”

“Maybe… we move again, so I don’t have to lie about it,” Lee suggested, knowing that was a huge step, but it wouldn’t be the first time they packed up and left it all behind.

“Where do you wanna move, Baby?” Nigel asked. They didn’t have to be in Jersey, Lee didn’t need to go for treatment there, and that was why they bought the place. “Italy? France?”

“You could go back overseas for a while, might be nice,” Lee mused, curling his fingers into Nigel’s chest hair as he got closer again.

“Anywhere you want,” Nigel promised, grandly.

“Paris might be nice, all that wine,” Lee suggested, brows raised. “Get us away from everything here for a while, let things settle.”

Nigel smiled at Lee, his eyes shining. “Paris, yeah,” he nodded, and kissed Lee on the lips.

“We’ll eat a lot of cheese and bread, and not get in over heads,” Lee laughed, against Nigel’s mouth, kissing him back slowly.

“I’ll have my people look for a place,” Nigel.promised, and kissed Lee, again. “Something nice.”

“Or we could go looking ourselves,” Lee said, shrugging slim shoulders.

“Yeah, we could. I can get the plane ready…” Nigel suggested, and kissed the side of his husband’s neck.

“We should wait until Will had you cleared, so we aren't running,” Lee answered, with a soft sigh, leading them back to their bedroom.

“We could do that,” Nigel nodded, and wrapped his arms around Lee from behind once they were in the bedroom, then kissed the side of Lee’s neck.

Lee Leaned back into Nigel, grinning back at him. “You know I'd go anywhere with you, right?”

“Yeah, I know, baby,” Nigel whispered, and kissed Lee on the lips. “You’ll like France. Fuckton of wine, lots of nice places to go, beaches…”

“Perfect for us,” Lee whispered back, turning his head slightly to look at his husband.

“Yeah, nice and warm, most of the time. Do you speak any French?” Nigel asked, thinking already of how cute Lee would be in French.

“Only a little, cajun french, and it’s not a lot,” Lee insisted, almost laughing at how bad his french really was. “I’ll learn.”

“Yeah, you will, it’s fucking easy. Just learn: where’s the wine?”

“And the bathroom?” Lee laughed, shaking his head. “I can’t wait now. It’ll be fun.”

“You’ll love it. You’ll never want to leave,” Nigel promised, and kissed Lee’s mouth.

“Just like you?”

“Yeah, just like me,” Nigel laughed and kissed Lee again. Lee nuzzled against Nigel, both of them still just in towels.

“How long until we can plan?”

“Ask your brother,” Nigel chuckled, and looked at his phone on the bed, then read a text.

“Doesn’t he have to wait on you?” Lee didn’t peek, but started to get dressed instead.

“My guys just did what I asked, I’ll tell him,” Nigel said, pulled on pants, and headed out. Lee followed after, and hugged Nigel from behind, as Beauty came up beside them with the puppy.

Nigel rubbed Lee’s arm where it rested over his bare chest, then kissed his hand before he stepped out onto the balcony where Will was working, and showed Will the image on his phone of a man in a field on a stag’s head, naked, with ravens feeding on him. “It’s done.”

“And we can pin this on the other guy?” Will asked, just to be sure, as Lee went to be sure the puppy had food and water of his own.

“One of his former thugs. My guys said they had a very public falling out … just two nights ago,” Nigel assured Will, and admired the photo a little. “Lucky for us, this fucking sicko has a skin as thin as your fucking bitch of a president’s. He’s always screaming at his people in public, a real fucking prima donna, always has to be the center of fucking attention. That makes him hard to put a bullet in, sadly.”

“Well, this works out well then, I can suggest it to Jack here soon, I know he’ll be sending me these pics in a while, and I can pretend to do some research,” Will offered.

“So, a few days, then?” Nigel asked, casually. 

“Probably. If he takes my word for it,” Will sighed, never so lucky in his case.

“Whatever you can do,” Nigel nodded, and put one hand on Will’s shoulder, patting it with his heavy, large palm that was covered in fine scars, as most of Nigel was, if someone looked hard enough.

“I said I would, so I will.” Will promised one way or another.

“I’ll make it up to you,” Nigel said, with a solemn nod, “I promise.”

Will shook his head.” You’re family. You’d do the same.”

“I’d do whatever the fuck I had to,” Nigel promised with another nod, and straightened to head inside. He owed Will, again. It was a strange, uncomfortable feeling to be in someone’s debt.

Will gave a shrug and got right back to the emails, sure that Jack would be sending them. “I’ll let you know when things are cleared for you.”

“A shame you’re not looking for a better job,” Nigel mused with a smirk as he walked back to the door leading inside.

“I’m trying to save people,” Will insisted, “I’m saving you both right now.” Beyond that, no, he wouldn’t do the work Nigel did… would he?

“That’s  _ all _ you want to do? Save people?” Nigel asked, with a tilt of his head.

“I went to school to do that, it’d be nice to use it and not just teach,” Will reasoned, head canted up at Nigel.

“There’s more than one way to save people. Sometimes not saving someone bad saves a lot of good people,” Nigel reasoned. “After this fucking pimp is gone, his system will fall apart, kids will get away, get the fuck out of that life.”

“It's another reason to help you,” Will replied, brows furrowed slightly at Nigel.

Nigel smirked back, knowingly. “Sure,” he nodded, and walked back into the penthouse to find Lee.

Lee was pouring another cup of coffee now that he’d done his morning routine, or so. He smiled at Nigel and nodded to the puppy, asleep with Beauty in her dog bed. “Someone stole your baby.”

Nigel looked over at Beauty and Beast, and chuckled. “I’ll get him back after their nap,” he said, and snapped a picture of his phone before he deleted the others that he showed Will, and tossed it on the counter. He hugged Lee from behind, both arms around his waist, chin on Lee’s shoulder. “A couple days, it should be taken care of.”

“That’s it?” Lee asked figuring it would take longer with Will's job. He leaned back against Nigel.

“Hopefully. In the meantime, my assistant is going to Paris to look around. He’ll send us photos of places that might work,” Nigel said, and stole a sip from Lee’s coffee, then looked at his profile. “What kinda place do you want, Baby?” he asked. Last time, Lee had been so sick that Nigel took control and forced him to accept the clean, huge, quiet condo as a surprise. This time he was a little more flexible … maybe.

“What makes you comfortable? I can adapt anywhere,” Lee said, one arm wound around Nigel's waist.  
“You being safe. That’s all I want. I don’t give a fuck about anything else, I just don’t want to have to worry about someone getting to you while I’m working,” Nigel said, honestly.

“That’s going to be an issue in Paris?” Lee asked, head canted.

“Baby, because of who I am, that’s gonna be an issue anywhere,” Nigel sighed, a little charmed at how naive Lee was about how things worked in his world. 

"You have work in Paris, too?” Lee sighed, looking down into his mug of coffee.

“I have work everywhere in the world,” Nigel said, and touched the side of Lee’s face. “Sorry, Baby.”

Lee was starting to see just how confining this sort of life was going to be for them. “It’s your job,” the brunet said with a little shrug.

“You’re not happy,” Nigel said, flatly.

“I guess I was hoping we’d have a breather,” Lee replied, looking at Nigel. “What’s the point of going somewhere nice if you’re always working?”

“I won’t always be working, baby. I can take some time off,” Nigel promised, his hand sliding down to skim the side of Lee’s warm throat.

Paris was much closer to Romania than they were now, and Lee knew a lot more issues would come up. However, it was Nigel’s work, he worked for his money where Lee skimmed by with inheritance and the shops. “Okay, promise?”

“Yes, I’ll take a few weeks off,” Nigel promised, and kissed Lee’s lips to seal it. “Promise.”

Lee nodded in affirmation that he agreed, too, and kissed Nigel sweetly, setting his coffee down on the counter. “Let’s find a nice place then.”

Nigel pulled out his phone and filed through a few screens. “These are all so fucking … frilly.”

“Very old, like the old places in NOLA,” Lee said, with a little shrug. He looked with Nigel. “Maybe something… modern?”

Nigel nodded, and kept scrolling through. “I don’t want to wake up in a fucking doll house every morning,” he sighed, his nose scrunching at the baroque details and heavy-handed gold accenting of most of the places listed.

“Even if I loved it?” Lee asked, with a smirk, nudging Nigel’s shoulder.

Nigel gave his husband a look, and smiled a little at him. “You would fucking love something like that, wouldn’t you?” he teased, fondly.

“Not to live in.” Lee poked Nigel’s shoulder. “It’s nice for aesthetic value.”

“No. You might like to look at fancy shit, but you need something manlier at home,” Nigel teased with a little bite at the side of Lee’s neck. “Bear cave. We need a fucking bear cave.”

“Oh do we? We need like deerskin rugs all over?” Lee laughed, quietly, remembering Will’s cabin.

Nigel laughed at that and gave a little growl, playfully. “Yeah, and a big fucking fireplace,” he whispered in Lee’s ear.

“Sounds like you just want to go back to Will’s cabin,” Lee murmured, leaning his ear against Nigel’s lips.

“It wasn’t so fucking bad. Nice to be away. We’d just need lots of fucking spices for the bears,” Nigel laughed.

Lee rolled his eyes. “We get one of those flashlights so bright it scares off bears. I saw an ad for it.”

Nigel started laughing at the thought, and stopped flipping through listings to open one. “This isn’t so fucking bad, look at this…”

“Lots of light, big windows…” Lee loved windows, natural lighting. “Is that a garden area?”

“Looks like it, yeah,” Nigel said with a little smirk and a look at his husband. This place was modern, sleek, but not cold looking. It was much better than the other places they’d seen so far. Nigel flipped through the pictures, slowly. “A fucking pool in the basement…”

“A pool?” Lee brightened a little, he’d always wanted a pool.

Nigel turned his phone to show Lee, and admired the light in his eyes. “Yeah, a fucking nice one, too.”

Lee leaned to see, arms on the counter. “Oh wow… it’s huge!”  
The pool was softly lit and seamless. Nigel didn’t give a fuck about it, besides the way Lee stared at it. “Pretty fucking big. No need to wear anything in there, it’s our house…”

Lee cast a glance to Nigel, shifting closer. “I do love skinny dipping.”

“Do you?” Nigel asked, softly, and pulled Lee closer to him with one arm around his waist, looking his perfect face over, fondly. “You could skinny dip whenever the fuck you wanted, anytime. We could do it together.”

“Only in our house though right?” Lee asked, brows raised. He knew well enough Nigel didn’t like him being seen by others.

“Of fucking course only in our house,” Nigel said, and paused. “Who else would you do that around?”

“No on that I can think of because I only have you on my mind,” Lee crooned, and smooched Nigel’s high cheek bone.

Nigel rolled his eyes, but flushed and gave Lee a look. “You are so full of shit, but I love you,” he laughed, marvelling at how Lee charmed him. Anyone else would have said something to make that brief flicker of jealousy flare out of control, but Lee had a way with him … Nigel couldn’t explain it. He had to laugh.

Lee kissed down Nigel’s face until he was cradle his head with both hands and their lips met. “You’d hate me any other way.”

Nigel sighed, and kissed Lee, softly, then looked at him. “You’re the only person I’ve ever fucking been with that I don’t … blow up at.”

“Not anymore,” Lee pointed out, but even then Nigel hadn’t really blown up more than he had… gotten silently pissed off.

“No,” Nigel agreed, and kissed Lee on the lips, then the forehead. “Not anymore. Should we put in an offer?”

“Let’s buy it; love it already,” Lee said with a swoony feeling in his gut. “I can decorate as needed.” Or not.

“Okay,” Nigel agreed, and kissed Lee again, more deeply before he sent a message to his assistant saying they wanted the place, and kissed his husband again. “I’ll get it for you.”

“Do you like it?” Lee asked, brows raised. “That’s important too.”

“Yeah, I like it,” Nigel assured Lee, honestly, and sent the message off. “It’s nice, looks easy to keep safe, nice and big for the dogs.”

“Now all we have to do is wait.”

 


	6. Chapter 6

A few days later, Will’s phone rang again, early in the morning. Winston raised his head from where it rested on the bed near Will’s side, and nudged at the buzzing thing. Will slapped the phone and tried to sleep, but then looked at it when Winston’s nose hit his hand. 

“Okay, okay…” He picked up the phone. “What now?”

"The Romanian authorities and INTERPOL are empty handed,” Jack said, without preamble. “What have you got on this, Will?”

“Same sort of crime scene, same killer. Serial killer, that is,” Will sighed, and rubbed his eyes to wake up a little more. “Both men are linked to a ‘Corneliu Albu’, known child trafficker, sells them out for sex. He got into a few heated arguments with both victims days before they died. Very out of control man. I’m… certain that’s our man,” Will explained, sure that it was not the answer Jack wanted. “Let’s not forget that his name literally means ‘white horn’.”

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. “You’re sure about this? This is our only concrete lead in this case, you’re certain it wasn’t anyone else?” Jack asked as he pulled up Albu’s profile, and read it over, shifting his mouth to the side, grimly.

“The only person that makes sense, and he was there the whole time. I can’t account for anyone else,” Will said, calmly. “Who did you want it to be, Jack?”

Another pause before Jack spoke again, his voice low after he closed his office door. “You’re suggesting that I’m trying to point you in some … direction? That’s pretty serious,” he said, testily, one hand on his hip.

“I’m telling you  what I found out, you don’t like it. Make your own conclusions if you don’t like mine,” Will snapped.

“We’ll  _ talk _ Monday.” Jack snapped back, and hung up.

Will set his phone down with a look at it and then got out of bed, slipping on his robe. He went to make coffee, now that he was awake.

Beast ran past Will with a little bark, chasing a small toy that Nigel was throwing for him across the living room, and down the hall. Nigel nodded at Will. “Coffee’s on.”

“Oh. Thanks,” Will said, grabbing a mug instead and a little sugar, he filled it up. He stood in the arch way and watched Nigel with his puppy. “Crawford called. Set everything in motion, and he’s not happy with my assessment. Expects me in tomorrow.”

“You didn’t hand him the person he wanted you to hand him,” Nigel said, knowingly, and huffed a little laugh through his nose as he took the toy from Beast and threw it an impressive distance for the puppy, who barked and chased it.   
  
The other dogs looked worn out, sleeping on the floor, ears not even twitching at the noise.

“Exactly that. I told him if he didn’t like what I had to say, he could do it himself,” Will muttered as he took a sip of his coffee. “He didn’t like that at all.”

“Hm,” Nigel said, thoughtfully, and looked over at Will as Beast wrestled his toy. “Think he’s going to fucking can you for it?”

Will shrugged. “At this point I don’t think I care,” he said, honestly. “He’s not that nice of a person to work with, and even though I’m not sick anymore, he holds no regard to my mental well beings on these things.”

“Sounds like an asshole,” Nigel nodded, and watched as Beast took his toy to Will, shaking it at him.

Will bent down to take the toy and threw it again. “Yeah, but he means well, just not to me. He wants what he wants, and this wasn’t it.” Will sighed into his mug. “I might resign after this.”

Nigel watched Will for a long moment, and then walked to the fridge to start breakfast. “He let you go on with whatever you were sick with for … how long?”

“He thought I was just eccentric,” Will said, rolling his eyes. “I didn’t even know I was sick. I thought it would go away.”

“ _ Sure _ . I saw you. You were sweating like a fucking pig and out of your head. How the fuck did he dismiss that shit?” Nigel pointed out, a protective tone in his voice.

“I have a habit of seeming okay. I act strange so people will leave me alone, it wasn’t too out of the ordinary. I never let anyone see me at the worst,” Will explained looking into his mug. “I owe you and Lee a lot for being there.”

Nigel’s hands paused before he cracked an egg against the side of the heavy pan. “We’re your fucking family.”

Will smiled a little at that, almost shyly. “I haven’t had a family in a long time. If you count dad as family.”

“I only had my mom,” Nigel admitted, quietly. “She drank and used, even while she was pregnant with me. Not that I can blame her, I’d need to drink if I was fucking pregnant, too. She tried her best. Used to dance, I mean  _ real _ dancing, ballet and shit, not just fucking stripping. I asked a doctor, once, while Lee was sick, if using and all that while you’re having a baby will fuck up the baby in the head. Yeah, it does, I guess.  I could have been really fucking smart…”

Will canted his head empathically. “You are smart, Nigel. Maybe not in the sense of books and all that, but you know how to survive, you take care of Lee, and you’re pretty well off. That’s smart, that’s  _ living _ .” Will’s brows furrowed a bit. “You didn’t know who your father was?”

Nigel rolled his eyes at the compliment, he knew he wasn’t a fucking genius or anything, but smiled a little to himself as he kept cooking. He lost the smile at the mention of his father. “A pimp.”

“Ah,” Will said, quietly. “Sorry.”

“Not your fucking fault,” Nigel said, and added spice to the eggs, and some cream. “Your mother?”

“Never knew her,” Will said, or at least not the mother he was told he had. Lee’s mother, well he didn’t know her either, but she was long dead, according to Lee.

“Sometimes it’s better like that,” Nigel said, as he slapped the bacon into another pan.

“Maybe,” Will said, and bent over to pick up the puppy in one arm, snuggling him.

Beast laid on his back like a baby, and wagged up at Will, but looked over at Nigel as he cooked. “Where did you grow up?”

“Here and there. New Orleans mostly, but on the river, Dad and I traveled a lot, always a new school,” Will sighed, and leaned closer so Beast could see his ‘daddy’.

Nigel smiled back at the pup, and turned around to scratch his head. “Sounds fucking lonely.”

“It’s made me who I am.” Will gave another shrug, as the puppy yawned and stretched his neck toward Nigel’s fingers.

Nigel scratched his head, then leaned down and nuzzled his face with his nose before he went back to cooking. “I could say the same.”

Will had the strangest feeling there was a lot more to Nigel than perhaps even Nigel knew. But he’d likely never know. Finally he set the puppy down as Lee turned the corner into the kitchen, dressed as he usually was to go for his run.

Nigel looked up at Lee, with a soft smile, looking him over. “About time,” he teased.

“You two are up way too early,” Lee murmured, and hugged his brother around the shoulders and then leaned over to kiss Nigel’s cheek.

Nigel turned his head to steal a kiss from Lee’s lips. “Beast wanted to play.”

“He is… a baby,” Lee sighed, having warned Nigel that a puppy would be almost as bad as Victor.

“I know. We got up and I wore him and the other dogs out,” Nigel chuckled, and looked at the pile of sleeping mutts in the living room.

“So, I’m not needed today?” Lee frowned a little, this meant he’d go running by himself.

Nigel looked at the dogs, then back at Lee. “I’m sure they can do a run, they can sleep later. You’re not going by yourself, baby.”

Will perked up at that. “I'll go with you, Lee.”

Lee paused, staring at his brother in some disbelief. “You?”

“I do know how to run.”

Nigel thought about it, and then shrugged. “Go. I’ll have breakfast fucking ready when you get back.”   
  
The dogs began to wake up, ears perking at the mention of the word “run”.

Will helped Lee wrangle the dogs and then got his own sweats and tennis shoes on, and met Lee at the door of the elevator.

Nigel texted the guards to let them know that Lee and Will would both run today and to be ready to follow them from a respectful distance, as they usually followed just Lee. “See you soon,” Nigel nodded, and looked back at the twins as he kept working at breakfast.

Lee kissed Nigel quickly, nosing against his neck once, and then was out the door with Will and the dogs, the pup left behind to keep Nigel company. They jogged around the block, keeping up with each other as the dogs made a huge path for them, every avoiding the large group.

Across the street, two men watched Lee and Will jogging with serious intensity. One of them, partially hidden by the other, reached into the inside of his coat, and pulled out a gun, while he focused on Lee, and took aim.

As if Will could sense it, or see it before Lee did, Will pushed Lee into an alley alcove as the gun went off, missing them. The dogs all started to bark and growl. Lee’s eyes went wide as Wil told him to stay down and made sure Lee held tight to the leashes.

The man across the street swore, and they ran across the street, toward the brothers in the alley, and the shooter drew his gun again as they followed them in. Beauty growled, and laid over Lee, shaking as the other dogs barked, loudly.

Will slipped his knife from his pocket, nothing big, but it was enough. He’d had altercations in the past, but this was different, this wasn’t just his own life, this was Lee’s in trouble. He left Lee with the dogs and flicked his knife open. Buster was near Will as he faced off with one of the man.

“If you’re smart, you’ll leave now,” Will said. “I’m a cop.” He’d really wished he brought his gun now.

The man without the gun looked taken aback, and the man holding the gun lowered it for a fraction of a second, as though confused. “We don’t care,” the larger man without the gun said, in a thick Russian accent.

“Will,” Lee said, cautiously, but Will didn’t wait, he threw his knife into the man with the gun’s shoulder. Will then ran up on the man threw a right hook into his jaw, and pulled the knife from his out, and kicked the gun out of his hand, disarming him.

The men looked stunned by Will’s sudden resistance, and the one standing started to back away, staring at him like he was crazy. They had not expected that from either of the brothers. The man without the gun advanced on Will and grabbed him by the neck, but Buster broke free of Lee’s grip on him and mauled the man’s leg hard enough to make him scream and shake Buster off. 

By then, a car with Nigel’s guards pulled up at the end of the street and they ran up behind the thugs, and dragged them into the car, throwing them both inside before they took off with them. One guard remained behind and hurried to Lee and Will. “You are okay?”

“We’re fine,” Will said, rubbing his throat once, but it wasn’t anything, he kicked the gun he’d disarmed from one of the men to the guard and wiped his knife off on his pants and put it back in his pocket. He grabbed Buster and grabbed Lee’s hand. “We’re going back.”

The guard nodded, and texted a message to Nigel before he picked up the gun. Another car showed up, and someone got out to open the door for them to get in. “We will drive you back.”

Will rolled his eyes. “With all the dogs?” he gestured to the pack, pretty sure it was going to be a tight squeeze in that car with all of them. Beauty tugged on her leash to get into the car, dragging Lee with her.

Footsteps came hard and fast down the block, and Nigel raced up to the car, furious and worried. “Lee!?”

“I’m fine,” Lee said, meeting Nigel half way, showing him he was okay, that he wasn’t even scathed. Will huffed a sigh.

“Look, we’re all fine. They were  _ not _ going to touch Lee if I could help it.”

Nigel looked Lee over, breathlessly, then pulled him into his arms, tightly, shaking as he held him. “What the fuck happened?” Nigel demanded, almost crushing Lee with both arms.

“Two guys thought they were going to get the jump on us,” Will explained, “I took care of it. Your men have them both. They had Russian accents.”

Nigel’s eyes darkened at that, and he nodded once, already aware of what he was going to do to them. “The guards got them?” Nigel asked, still binding Lee to his chest with shaky, strong arms.

“Yes, in the car they came out of,” Will answered. “I stabbed one in the shoulder and decked him. I should have had my gun…”

Lee hugged Nigel tightly around his shoulder, hands still holding the leashes. “Will saved us.”

Nigel’s eyebrows went up, and he walked Lee toward the car, gesturing for everyone to get in. Beauty was still shaking hard, hiding behind Nigel’s legs. “Will did?”

Will followed silently as every and the dogs piled into the car.

“He got between them and me,” Lee explained, and Will rolled his eyes. He defended them, nothing else.

Nigel got in, and sat down, then pulled Lee into his lap and closed the door once all the dogs were inside. Beauty managed to crawl between Lee and Nigel, shivering as Nigel petted her to calm her down. “You fucking stabbed a guy who had a gun?” Nigel asked Will, thoughtfully.

“That’s all I had on me,” Will shrugged, and let Buster snuggle on his lap as the dog made sure he was okay.

Nigel nodded, thoughtfully, and looked over at Will. “Did you get hurt?”

“He tried to choke me, but your men came before I could do anything else,” Will explained.

Nigel looked at Will’s throat, quickly. “We’ll get you some ice,” he promised as they pulled into the parkade of their building and the car stopped near their elevator. Nigel opened the door to release the flood of adrenaline-filled dogs, and then let Lee out before he followed, one hand still on Lee’s back as they made their way to the elevator.    
  
Nigel gave a few short orders in Romanian before they stepped inside, to the guards standing there.

Lee snuggled into Nigel’s side as Will took up the rear and pushed the button to go up. “I’m fine, I won’t need the ice,” he finally said.

“Yeah, right now you won’t, wait until it fucking swells on you,” Nigel said, knowingly, and kept snuggling Lee as they rose to the top floor. The doors opened and the dogs rushed out. Beast barked at Nigel, sharply, irritated that he was left alone. “I know, I know, Monster. I had to go…” he sighed.

Will shook his head and went to get the ice himself, and Lee wouldn’t let go of Nigel.

Nigel rubbed Lee’s back with one hand and kissed his forehead, “It’s okay, Baby. This is why I want you to run with someone…”

“I usually run alone,” Lee insisted, but Nigel had a point. What if he had been alone?

“I have you followed from a distance but if Will hadn’t fucking been there, they wouldn’t have got to you on time,” Nigel sighed, and touched the side of Lee’s face.

“They probably wanted money,” Lee sighed, chest heaving once as he wrapped his arms around Nigel tighter. “Not the first time I’ve been held up. Just the first time around here.”

Nigel had other suspicions, but didn’t say anything just yet. “People are assholes,” he murmured, and hugged his rattled husband, again, rubbing his back with one big hand.

Lee would just rather not think about the implications, once this month with the cop was bad enough of a run in. He kissed the side of Nigel’s neck and then let go. Will stood there watching them, baggy of ice in hand over his throat.

“People  _ are _ assholes,” Will said. “I don’t trust that there aren’t more of them, of those guys, out there waiting. They  _ knew _ you were coming, Lee.”

“I’ll make sure they’re gone, Baby,” Nigel reassured Lee, and kissed him as he cupped his face, then smiled at him. “You need to shower, then breakfast,” Nigel said, calmly and with reassuring authority.

Lee nodded, reluctant to pull away, but finally did and kicked off his shoes by the door and then padded off to the bedroom, Beauty following behind him. Will watched until Lee disappeared, and then looked at Nigel.

“The Russian mob doesn’t like you, do they?”

“I may have just taken over a big fucking piece of their business in China,” Nigel admitted, and looked back at Will, his reassuring calm gone. His eyes were pitch black, shining and hard as he started to heat breakfast again from where he’d shoved everything off the burner before racing down to Lee.

“They knew how to get to you personally, and where it would hit the most,” Will said, setting the ice down on the counter as he watched Nigel. “You can’t let him go alone. He doesn’t know how to defend himself and Yoga is not going to help.”

“I fucking know that,” Nigel muttered, and turned to look at Will as though he’d just seen him for the first time. “What kind of a shot are you?”

“Decent enough. Better now, I’ve been practicing,” Will said, not mentioning how many times it took him to take down Hobbs, but that hardly mattered since he had gotten better since then. Bev had been helping.

Nigel folded his arms over his chest, thinking. “Better than you are with a knife?”

“I’m really good with a knife, I wasn’t trying to kill him,” Will remarked, head canted, and arms folded over his chest. “A gun would have been more proficient though.”

Nigel took two steps forward. “How would you like a million a year, as many fucking dogs as you want, and to see your brother every day?”

Will furrowed his brows and then blinked, expression changing when he realized Nigel wasn’t kidding. “To do what?”

“Exactly what you did today. Lee doesn’t want one of my fucking goons with him all the time, he’d fucking hate that. But … you? His brother with training and a nice little mean streak if he gets fucking attacked? He’d be happy, you’d be away from the fucking FBI, you’d have anything you want, and you’d be helping him.”

“You want to pay me to be around my brother…” Will said, eyeing Nigel carefully. He’d do it for free, of course, but he would need something to live on, to pay for the house, though maybe he didn’t need the house. “I’ll do it. I don’t need all that money though.”

“Yeah, you fucking do. I’m paying you to do a fucking quality job. Just because you’re related doesn’t mean I should pay you less than I’d pay anyone else to make sure he’s safe,” Nigel said, solidly.

As breakfast heated again, the kitchen started to smell more domestic, less like panic and adrenaline, and the dogs began to calm as Lee’s shower sounded in the distance. 

“You’d have days off when I’d be with him all the time, but those can always get fucked up. Make no fucking mistake, Will. I’m paying you to take a bullet if you have to, or give one.”

Will had been shot before, nothing new there. “I know. I’m just saying, he’s my brother, the only one I’ve got, I’d die to protect him.” Lee and Nigel were all Will had anyway, aside from the dogs, and if he went down? He knew they’d take care of the dogs.

“Well, you’re getting paid. Get fucking used to it,” Nigel said decisively, and smirked at Will before he turned around to make toast, the way Lee liked it, just golden brown on both sides with just a little bit of butter.

“Thank you,” Will said, not sure what else to say. “I’ll give Jack my formal resignation tomorrow then after I get yelled at.”

Nigel chuckled, and tossed a tiny piece of bacon for Beast to catch, which the puppy almost did. “How do you feel about France?”

“I’ve never been,” Will shrugged. “Is that where you’re going next?”

“Yeah, get out of here for a while. We’re buying a house in Paris, nice and big with a huge fucking yard,” Nigel said, and looked at the dogs who had started playing tug of war with a toy to burn off their excitement. 

“I’ll go wherever you need me to be,” Will said, since he now worked for Nigel, he wouldn’t mind. 

“We’ll leave after all this is tied up with Jack on a private plane, no customs, none of that bullshit,” Nigel said with a nod, and then plated the food, and looked up at Will, curiously. “I’m going to get a fucking look at those assholes who jumped you, once Lee falls asleep,” Nigel said, and tilted his head at Will. “Want to come?”

Something stirred inside of Will at the offer, as he knew that it wasn’t just a look Nigel was going for, but something else altogether, something darker and bloodier. “Yeah, I would.”

Nigel nodded, smiling a little, and set the plates on the table. “Good,” he said, and poured some coffee for Lee, then for Will and himself. “I think they’re owed a little more time with you,” Nigel said with a gleam in his dark eyes.

“I need to thank them personally for the bruise growing around my neck,” Will added with a dark smirk before sitting just as Lee walked in, clean and showered, and looking a little less rattled.

Nigel was about to answer Will, but looked over at Lee and smiled at him. “Better?” he asked, and walked Lee’s cup of coffee to him, putting it in his hands as he kissed his lips.

Lee nodded, taking the cup, and sat down across from Will. “Yeah. I needed that.”

“It’s been a hell of a morning,” Nigel agreed as he got his own coffee and sat down. Beauty laid between them, a little calmer now, but kept her head against Nigel’s leg. 

“Sure has,” Will said, digging into his own breakfast, his appetite was getting better by the day. Lee did the same, but mostly just picked at his food.

Nigel watched his husband, dark eyes taking everything in as Lee pushed his food around his plate. “I hired a new bodyguard for you.”

Lee rolled his eyes and looked over at Nigel. “I don’t want a bodyguard.” He didn’t mind the company, but most of the guards Nigel hired were so stiff and not very fun to talk to.

“You’ll like this guy,” Nigel argued, with a gleam in his eyes. “He’s got training, he likes dogs…”

Lee narrowed his eyes on his husband, and then heard Will start to chuckle, gaze shifting to him. “You?”

“Me,” Will replied. “You don’t mind do you?”

Elated, Lee shook his head. “No. No! That’s perfect, actually.”

Nigel smiled behind his coffee cup and sat back in his chair as he petted Beauty with his foot. “I can fire him … you’re sure?” he teased his husband.

“I’m sure! Don’t fire him! He’s my brother!” Lee toed against Will’s leg once with a smile on his face.

“Alright, it’s him or some fucking huge Romanian guy who has three teeth and never laughs,” Nigel teased with a wink at Lee. “I also want to get you a big fucking  _ trained _ dog,” Nigel said, seriously. 

“Another dog?” Lee asked, brows raised, they were already getting  _ seven _ more if Will moved in with them.

“A working dog,” Nigel said, and shrugged his shoulders, “I’m thinking about it.” He started eating what had become a spicy egg dish with cheese and bacon.

“I can find one,” Will offered, finishing up his meal, and then tapped Lee under the table with his foot. “Eat.”

“Eat,” Nigel echoed with a nod of his head at his husband, and tapped Lee’s plate with his fork.

Lee narrowed his eyes on them both and started to push his food into his mouth this time. “Both of you now ganging up on me?”

“Of course we fucking are,” Nigel smirked, and swallowed a gulp of his coffee before he tossed a tiny bit of bacon to Beast. “We’re your fucking family. Get used to it.”

Lee kept eating, quiet, for once as they all ate and finished their breakfast. Once done, Will got up and took their plates to clean up.

Nigel reached over and took Lee’s hand, squeezing it, gently. “You okay?”

Lee nodded slowly, drinking his coffee. “I’m fine. Just another dose of reality.”

Nigel stood and moved to Lee, standing behind him as he wrapped both arms around Lee’s shoulders in a hug, and kissed the side of his neck. “You’re safe here, Baby.”

Inside the building? Yes. Outside? Lee hadn’t been one to worry about those things, he’d usually somehow get out of it, but the sort of people Nigel dealt with seemed to be around every corner, lurking. He hadn’t expected that, stupidly. But, he had Will now, maybe it’d be easier, better.

“I know,” he said, touching Nigel’s forearm where it lay heavy over his chest.

Nigel kissed the side of his husband’s face, and nuzzled him. “What are you thinking about?”

“How much you’ve changed my life, changed _ me _ ,” Lee said with nothing but affection in his tone, leaning back to look into Nigel’s eyes. “Sometimes it’s more than I bargained for, but we always seem to come out on top.”

Nigel looked worried, and took a deep breath, “Did I change it too much?”

Lee shook his head, and kissed Nigel’s jaw. “No. I’m alive, I’m happy, and I’m not alone anymore.”

Nigel held Lee, a little tighter. “I feel like I dragged you into my world.”

“No, I got here on my own, but I do appreciate the company,” Lee said with a smile, and stood, properly wrapping his arms around Nigel, resting their profiles together.

Nigel kissed Lee at that, slowly and deeply, one of his hands against the back of Lee’s hair, fingers curled gently around the back of his head as their tongues brushed. Lee hummed into the kiss, arms tighter around Nigel as his head canted to deepen it. He wouldn’t change anything about their life together.

Nigel hummed in return, and sucked Lee’s tongue, gently, as one hand fisted Lee’s shirt against his back. He started to back Lee toward the bedroom, slowly, without letting their lips part for a moment.

Lee moaned softly as their feet shuffled out of the kitchen, almost haphazardly, and down the hall, until he was reaching behind him to push the door open to the bedroom, all but climbing his husband at this point. “Nigel-”

Nigel picked Lee up, letting Lee wrap both legs around his hips, and carried him into the bedroom. He kicked the door shut and carried Lee to the bed to lay him on it, laying over him as they kissed, slowly.

Tugging on Nigel’s shirt, Lee bit Nigel’s lip and sucked on it softly. “We need less on for this…” he panted.

“I know-” Nigel moaned, and stripped Lee’s shirt off, quickly, and threw it across the room then undid Lee’s pants.

Lee chuckled, helping Nigel was shimmying out of his pants and socks, and then reached up to undo Nigel’s jeans, kissing his lips again, this time feverishly.

Nigel shimmied out of his jeans, and kicked them off, with his socks, then laid over Lee with a moan when their skin touched, warm and smooth. “Fuck, I love you.”

Where Lee had been worried before, he was now much more in tune with his husband’s needs and his own. He tugged Nigel closer, over him, and then reached between them to fist their cocks together, rolling his hips up. “I love you.”

A low grunt spilled from Nigel’s lips at the touch, and he reached for the lube on the bed stand, and slicked his fingers with it, then rubbed them against Lee’s entrance before easing them inside, loosening Lee’s tight body.

Lee groaned with that, panting harder as his rutted down to meet Nigel’s fingers, wantonly. “There-”

“You like my big fingers inside you, huh?” Nigel purred, and crooked them just so, to make their rough tips drag over Lee’s prostate.

Lee writhed under Nigel, gasping with a soft moan at the end of it. “Yeah, Daddy, I do…”

Nigel smiled against Lee’s lips, and watched him writhe as he stroked the most sensitive part of his body, over and over. “Fucking beautiful…”

Eyes hooded, Lee breathed out faster as the pools of heat began to spread through his lower half, burning against the backs of his thighs. “Fuck, Nigel…”

Nigel watched Lee, admiring him before he replaced his fingers with his cock, slowly, and guided Lee’s legs over his shoulders. Lee hitched his hips up and took Nigel in completely, letting out a long sigh and staying perfectly still for a moment before squeezing his legs over Nigel’s shoulder.

“Fast and Hard.”

“Needy little thing,” Nigel growled affectionately, and started to pound into Lee.

“Fuck, yeah, for you,” Lee managed to groan, every word out of his mouth punctuated by the sharp slap of Nigel’s hips fucking the air right out of him.

After almost losing him, Nigel wanted to fuck Lee hard enough that he’s never forget it. His hips slammed against Lee’s tattooed ass every time, so quickly that a bead of sweat rolled down Nigel’s flexing back, between his muscles.

Breathing harder now, Lee felt the swell of impending orgasm rush through him, hands reaching to grasp the bedcovers as he writhed and bucked, trying to get every sensation at once. “Fuck, fuck…”

“Come on, Baby, come for Daddy,” Nigel moaned and gripped Lee’s ass as he felt himself start to come.

Lee gripped his own cock and jerked it hard twice before he came in what felt like droves all over himself and his fingers, gasping and groaning Nigel’s name into the air, almost desperately.

Nigel followed with a full body shudder and drilled his cock into Lee’s body as he came, colors exploding behind his closed eyes. “Fuck, Fuck …”

Finally, as they settled, Lee dropped his legs and wrapped them around Nigel, and then his arms. He panted against his throat. “You won’t lose me, you know.”

Nigel raised his head from where it was tucked against Lee’s and kissed his face, slowly. “Better fucking not.”

“I’m going to haunt you forever,” Lee laughed, teasingly, and kissed Nigel’s lips slowly.

“Yeah?” Nigel smiled, and kissed Lee, slowly.

“Yeah,” Lee answered, his heavy breathing finally coming down, softening.

“Not as fucking much as I’d haunt you,” Nigel whispered.

Lee laughed, running hands up Nigel’s back and down  one side of his neck where the bird tattoo was covering the lady he once had. They’d changed each other. “So long as you’re still with me, I don’t care how you do it.”

Nigel smiled, and leaned his neck against Lee’s hand as they looked at each other. “I couldn’t fucking stay away.”

“Good. If you go first you have to wait around for me,” Lee chuckled lightly, caressing the bird with his thumb.

“Same goes for you,” Nigel said with a little smile at the gentle touch. “No boyfriends. I’d find a way to throw them out the window.”

“No boyfriends. I promise,” Lee grinned.

Nigel kissed Lee again, playfully, “I’d make you get me taxidermied so I can scare them off,” he growled, with a smile.

Lee burst out laughing. “Okay, okay… don’t get carried away.”

“With a gun,” Nigel threatened with a smirk, and bit Lee’s earlobe, “and my shirt open, so you can look at my chest hair.”

“Ohh… will it stay just like it is now?” Lee asked, smirking back at his husband, running his hand through the greying chest hair.

“Forever,” Nigel laughed, and watched Lee card his hand through his chest hair. “It’ll probably get thicker as I get older.”

“Oh God. I’ll die before you, if that’s the case. Death by your furry chest,” Lee sighed, teasing.

Nigel laughed, and looked at his chest. “It’s hairier than it used to be, filled in,” he said, and kissed Lee’s lips again, considering himself damn lucky that Lee liked big, hairy, masculine men.

“I love it, almost as much as I love you,” Lee insisted, rubbing Nigel’s chest to his shoulders and then hugged him tightly.

“Almost?” Nigel asked, and hugged Lee to him, then kicked the covers over them both to keep them warm with a happy sigh.

“Almost,” Lee sighed, happily. “I love you above all else.” That’s where Nigel had really changed Lee, from being unattached, to not being able to be without him at all.

“Even wine?” Nigel asked, as he laid his long leg over Lee’s feet to keep them warm.

Lee’s feet were always cold.

“Even wine,” Lee murmured, nuzzling against Nigel’s neck.

“Fuck, you really do love me,” Nigel smiled, and kissed Lee’s forehead as he held him. “I fucking love you, too. There is  _ nothing _ I wouldn’t do for you. You know that, right?”

“I know. Everyday I see just how much,” Lee admitted, honestly, content to lay like this, growing tired just being warm and snuggled with Nigel.

“Really?” Nigel asked, seriously. Lee had made him less selfish, dramatically less selfish. If Lee was happy, Nigel was happy. If Lee wasn’t happy, neither was Nigel. 

“Yeah. No one’s bothered to care this much about me,” Lee said, but then again, he’s never let anyone either. Nigel was special.  
“Fucking hard to believe,” Nigel said, without a trace of jealousy. “You’re easy to love.”

“Doesn’t mean I love back easily,” Lee reminded his gruff husband. Lee could have had anyone, if he wanted, but the fact was, he didn’t. Nigel was the only one who ever took his heart completely.

Nigel smiled at that, and brushed his thumb along Lee’s jaw. “Only Romanian Bears, huh?”

“Yes, and only one at that,” Lee smiled back, eyes closing half way as Nigel touched him fondly like that. Honestly, Lee felt honored to be considered this highly with Nigel.

“Then I’m pretty fucking lucky that I found you before all the other Romanian Bears did,” Nigel teased, softly, and kissed Lee’s lips with tenderness.

Lee chuckled, arms and legs wound tight around his husband. “As I am sure there just so many…”

“No, I’m the only one,” Nigel murmured, and kissed Lee’s forehead, adoringly, and rubbed his back slowly with one hand.

“Good, I don’t need another.”


	7. Chapter 7

Once Lee was fast asleep in bed, curled up with Beauty, Nigel dressed and walked out into the penthouse to find Will. It was time to pay the men who’d tried to kill Lee a visit. Will was dressed, leaving his dogs to watch over the penthouse. He’d never done anything like this, but something had to give at some point.

“Do I need to bring anything?” Will asked, lacing up up his boots.

“Your gun, your knife,” Nigel said as he got his own gun out, and pocketed it inside his leather jacket.

Will had the knife in his pocket and the gun in his pants already, and nodded as he put his jacket on to cover both. “Done.”

Nigel scribbled a note for Lee, explaining he and Will had to run out for a bit, but would be back soon, then petted Beast behind the ears, and headed for the elevator. “You’re prepared. I like that.”

“The part of me that was a cop,” Will murmured, well aware this was the least cop thing he was about to do.

“Well, you’re about to see life from the other side,” Nigel said, and looked over at Will as they descended together. The elevator doors opened and Nigel went to the car, knowing Will would follow.

Will did, sliding into the passenger side. “And Lee isn’t going to find out, right?”

“No. Lee doesn’t like details,” Nigel said, as he started it up and drove out of the parkade, headed downtown.

Will knew that, of course, but at what point did Lee get his head out from under the sand and see what was going on around him? Still, Will was quiet, leaving that to sit there as they drove. He still had to talk to Jack tomorrow, and that was not something he was looking forward to.

Nigel drove through the streets of the downtown core until he came to what looked like a normal parkade. At the back of the parkade was a closed steel garage door that went up when he used a button on his phone, then a code. He drove through, and down a winding track that took them underground, and parked. It looked like a strange, private, underground parking lot with one door. “Here we are.”

“Your building?” Will asked, taking a deep breath before double checking his gun to be sure it was loaded, more out of habit than anything.

“Something like that,” Nigel said as he walked to the door and used his fingerprint against a scanner to unlock it. He walked into a large room, dimly lit. There was a hallway to the left and right, but the room they were in seemed to be good enough for today.    
  
There, tied to two chairs were the men who’d attacked Will and Lee, guarded by Nigel’s armed men. “These are them?” Nigel asked Will, casually.    
  
Both men swallowed hard when they saw Nigel walk in.

Will looked at the two men, the one he had stabbed in the shoulder had a puddle of blood under him. “Yeah, that’s them.”

“You know who I am?” Nigel asked, calmly, as he paced around the bound men, who nodded, white-lipped. “You know who he is?” Nigel asked, and the men stared at Will for a long moment, then shook their heads.

Will glared at them next to Nigel, knife now in his hand as he flicked it open, watching them carefully.

“That was your big fucking mistake,” Nigel said with a sadistic gleam in his eyes. “The man you tried to kill? This is his brother. He’s a nice guy but … he’s not a  _ good  _ guy, and you pissed him off. You pissed me off, too. But, I’m going to let him fucking start.”

Will frowned, looking at Nigel for a moment and then the men who seemed to tense up a little. Will didn’t bother to wipe the knife off from the first time he’d stabbed the first man, and but instead of stabbing him again, he punched him hard in the jaw.

The man’s head snapped to the side, and Nigel elbowed the other man in the face, breaking his nose with a neat crunch before he raised the man’s face by grabbing a fistful of his hair. “Did you know that was my fucking husband?” he asked.   
  
The man didn’t answer, so Nigel grabbed a finger and twisted until it came out of joint, which made the man scream. “YES!”

“They knew,” Will said, but he already was well aware of that when he saw them come after them. He shoved the knife into the man shoulder, the already opened wound, pinning him to the chair.          

“Used to be that families were sacred. Fucking off limits,” Nigel muttered as he dislocated another finger, then another, and belted the screaming man across his face. “No fucking decency in the world, anymore.”

Will was new to this, not quite sure what he could or couldn’t do, but considering what they had wanted to do to Lee… well… “We could cut off what matters to them and let them go…” They wouldn’t live.

Nigel looked at Will over the men’s heads with a look of disbelief on their faces, then licked his lips, as though he was considering it. “I want to know who fucking ordered this,” he said, very, very quietly, staring into the terrified eyes of the man with the broken nose.    
  
“I don’t know! We were just-” Nigel cut him off by pulling a pair of pliers out of a drawer in a cabinet in the corner, and grabbed his hair, wrestling his mouth open as the man started to choke on his own saliva, trying desperately to speak as Nigel started to yank a tooth out.

“Or that works,” Will said under his breath, watching as Nigel meticulously tortured people, like it was second hand nature.

Nigel twisted the pliers, and yanked the tooth out by the root from the man’s screaming, bloody mouth, then tossed it on the floor, and moved to take another when the man shook his head in desperation. “Nikov! Nikov told us to … he said it would be easy, quick … “    
  
Nigel’s eyes were dark as shadows from the light hanging overhead pooled under his brow and cheekbones, making him look even more menacing than usual. “A nice  _ easy _ kill, huh? Put a bullet in my  _ husband’s _ head and  _ be on your fucking way _ ?” Nigel asked, softly. The room went quiet enough that all anyone could hear was breathing, and then Nigel grabbed the man gunman in the chair by his throat, and picked him up, angry to the point of bizarre strength, then beat him against the wall, over and over again until the back of the gunman’s skull shattered against a steel pillar.   
  
Nigel didn’t stop, he just kept slamming the gunman’s corpse against the pillar, without blinking, blood, brain and bone spattering all over his arms and face.

All anyone else could do was watch, Will included, who just took his knife back out. “Nigel…

Nigel dropped the dead man at the mention of his name, and seemed to calm down. He stared at the explosion of blood on the wall, breathing hard, and blinked, then looked at Will. His skin was speckled with bright red blood, which he licked off of his lips. “Yeah?”

“This one too?” Will asked, calmly, gesturing to the last man still sitting there, shaking.

“Yeah, that one too,” Nigel nodded, and watched Will with a tilt of his head, almost testing him.

Will pulled the gun from the back of his pants, safety off, and pulled the hammer back, and aimed it at the other man, and then looked at Nigel. “Okay.” He pulled the trigger, blowing a bullet right through the man’s left eye.

Nigel watched, calmly as Will killed the man quickly, but surely. He walked over to his brother in law, and patted one bloodied hand against Will’s back, then kicked the pliers across the bloody floor. “How do you feel?”

“Closure,” Will said, admittedly, but not exactly great. His throat was still bruised, but he still felt Lee deserved more, but this was all of it, all of them.

“They fucking deserved it,” Nigel said with a sigh. “Think you can handle the job?”

Will knew now he’d do anything to protect his brother, hell he’d do it to protect Nigel. “Yeah. Yes. I can.”

“Alright,” Nigel said with another nod, and gave Will a one-armed hug, then looked at the mess they’d left. “Cleaners will be here soon. I have a shower down the hall, in my office.”

“I think you need that more than I do,” Will suggested, hardly as bloody as Nigel.

Nigel looked down at himself, and nodded, as though just noticing now that he was covered in blood. “Yeah,” he chuckled, and headed toward the hallway. “Come on, you can wait in my office. Won’t take long.”

Will nodded, stepping over the bodies and followed Nigel out. “This happen a lot?”

“No, just sometimes,” Nigel said, and used his fingerprint to get into another room. It was an office, nothing expensive, just a room with a few tables, a couple of couches, and quite a few enormous safes that were all locked up.

Nigel nodded at a remote on one of the couches as he headed to a bathroom off of his office. “Go ahead, watch whatever you want.”

Will didn’t indulge in television. “Thanks,” he murmured, hoping to God Lee never saw this place, or knew about it, he wasn’t sure how his brother would take it. On second, thought, maybe Lee was stronger than they thought.

Nigel stepped into the other room, and closed the door. The shower sounded for a few minutes, and a few minutes after that, Nigel stepped out, dressed in jeans and a black shirt, rolled up at the sleeves, loose at the neck. “You don’t watch tv?”

“I don’t feel the need to. A newspaper works just fine, or the headlines on my phone,” Will shrugged, and stepped in behind Nigel to at least clean off the stray splotches from his skin from splatter.

Nigel shrugged and strode to a couch to spread out on it. “Before I came here, I thought all Americans were obsessed with television.”

“Most are,” Will said, and wiped off his neck and forearms, anywhere else. His clothes weren’t too bad, he was pretty sure it would go unnoticed or at least he could try to get out the stain later.

“Want to borrow something to wear?” Nigel asked, and gestured to a chest of drawers against the wall.

“Should I burn the stuff I have on?” Will gested, mostly in amusement, not sure how that  _ actually _ worked. “Yeah,” Nigel nodded, like that was obvious. “It’s evidence. Take whatever you like out of the drawers. When you’re done, toss your dirty shit into the door-thing by the shower. Goes to an incinerator.”

Will nodded, and pulled out jeans and a shirt, nothing fancy, but kept his belt off his own jeans. He shut the door behind him and washed up completely, dropping his old clothes into the bin, and then changed. He slipped the belt on and his knife and gun back into it their places.

“Thanks.”

The clothes were big on Will, of course, and Nigel chuckled. “I forget you and Lee are the same size. You seem bigger.”

“I think he’s a little leaner,” Will said, having to tightening his belt to keep the pants on. “I’ll be like that soon with all the running he does.”

Nigel nodded, and waited for Will before opening the door again and walked out into the room that was still a bloodbath, but now devoid of bodies. Two men in black were cleaning, calmly and nodded at Nigel as he passed, going to the car.

Will passed the scene without much of another look over at it, he’d remember it anyway, vividly. He got into the car and slid in, a lot more at peace with himself than he had been before all this.

Nigel got in and turned around, then drove back up the long, winding path up, and opened the garage door to drive back out as he slipped a pair of shades on. “We should stop and pick up a bottle of something for Lee.”

“In case he woke up and wonders what we were up to?” Will asked, eyes on the outside as he leaned in against his car door with his elbow.

“No, because he’s had a shit day,” Nigel said, a little defensively. “He knows what I fucking do for a living. We don’t talk about it, but he fucking knows.”

“I’m… I was just suggesting he might see it as that.” Will sighed a huff. “Something bold but light.”

“You’re into wine too?” Nigel asked, and turned into a parking spot by a nice wine store he went into now and then.

“No. He was babbling on about it when he came to my house a few weeks ago when you were gone. I remember things,” Will explained, and hopped out of the car.

Nigel got out of the car, and strode into the store, looking around at wines. “I remember shit he said, too.”

“I would hope so,” Will said with a little smile. “As I don’t really know what bold and light means. Sounds like a contradiction to me.”

“I don’t fucking know either,” Nigel muttered, and waved over an employee. “Do you have anything … light and bold?” Nigel asked.”

The employee directed them to the Grenaches, and Will looked them over with a shrug. “Looks good to me.”

“I think so?” Nigel murmured, and frowned as he compared bottles, confused. He read a French bottle, then something Italian, then picked up another bottle. “Fucking wine…They all look the fucking same to me. Grape juice...”

Will picked up on in Spanish. How many places made wine? “There’s too many, how does he do it?”

Nigel picked up the Spanish bottle, and read it, biting his lip. “This looks … right? It’s all the same to me, it’s just fruity plum aftertaste and something-fucking undertones.”

“Get three,” Will offered, decidedly. “I mean, he’ll drink it anyway, even if it’s not good.”

“Good point,” Nigel said, and took all three to the counter to pay for them, then took them back to the car in the dark, fancy bag from the store. “What the fuck ever happened to paper bags?”

“You have to go to a convenience store for that,” Will said, following Nigel every step of the way, but keeping a safe distance. He slipped back into the passenger seat.

Nigel got into the car, and pulled away, headed back home. They parked, and got in the elevator to head up to the penthouse. The dogs crowded around them, happily, and sniffed at the bag. “He’s not up, yet.”

“How long were we out?” Will asked, having left his watch behind and his phone, just in case they got evidence on them, he didn’t want to risk that.

“Couple hours,” Nigel said, looking at his phone, and went to the bedroom to look in at Lee.

Will had never known anyone who took naps like Lee did, but he supposed after the cancer it was just for the best, and Nigel seemed very adamant on Lee having one everyday.

Lee was still out, arms around Beauty and the puppy snuggled up to Lee's back.

Nigel put the wine bag on the end of the bed, then let himself out of the room, quietly. “He’s still out,” Nigel said, to Will, and poured himself a drink.

“Does he always sleep this long? I haven't paid attention with all the sleep I've been doing myself,” Will said, deciding not to ask for a drink, it was still too early, even for him.

Nigel figured it was drinking time in Romania, anyway, and downed another swallow. “Yeah …” Nigel said, softly, and then thought about it. “Yeah he usually has a nap. I’m so fucking paranoid that he’ll get sick again that I make him sleep, and eat...”

“Even better reason to keep him away from those thugs. They could have anything,” Will mentioned, mostly to himself, hoping that he did a decent job at protecting his brother from here on out.

Nigel sighed through his nose, never having thought of that before. Fuck. “You enjoy giving me new nightmares, don’t you?”

“Welcome to my world,” Will said, getting a glass of water instead.

“Are you going to quit the FBI in person?” Nigel asked, as he leaned one hip against the counter, glass in hand, then picked Beast up with the other.

“Yup. Tomorrow when I go to see Jack.” Will shrugged, shaking his head. “Less… strange that way.”

“How do you think that’s going to fucking go?” Nigel asked, as Beast licked his chin.

“Not well, but he hasn’t treated me with much respect so, I can’t really offer him anything else anyway, not… if I want to keep my sanity,” Will explained, reaching over to pet the puppy.

“That’s a nice thing to have …” Nigel said, and sipped his drink. “I’m told.”

Brows furrowed, Will gave Nigel a look. “You don’t think you’re sane?”

“You saw what I did in there. What do you fucking think?” Nigel asked, bluntly.

“I don’t think killing someone makes you insane, I think it makes decided and strong. You aren’t a serial killer, technically. I… mean, you have a temper, sure…” Will sighed, he wasn’t doing a very good job at explaining this. “You aren’t the people I’ve taught FBI trainees about.”

“If I were,” Nigel said, curiously, and took a couple steps closer to Will. “What would you teach them about me?”

“About you or the Romanian?” Will asked, brow quirked a little, amused. “You’re… a passionate killer. You don’t often premeditate your murders. You’re in the moment, but your mind works fast enough that all it takes is that moment and you’ve got it-- the best way to handle the situation, the body.”

Nigel smiled a little, and then looked down at his drink, considering it. “Sounds like a fucking scary guy to me,” he chuckled, and looked at Will. “You’re not scared of me.”

“I had the pleasure of getting to you the part of you Lee loves before the other parts, that makes you less scary to someone like me,” Will explained, decidedly going for a clean glass for a drink, feeling he’s earned it now.

“Good. I don’t trust people who are afraid of me,” Nigel confessed to Will, softly.

“That’s why Lee got your attention?” Will asked, curiously.

Nigel smiled, which made the edges of his eyes crinkle. “Yeah. He wasn’t intimidated, he didn’t shy away, stare at my tattoo. He was … open,” he said, with a little smile.

“Seems like him.” Will shook his head. “Lucky for you.”

Nigel smiled at the memory, and nodded. “Yes,” Nigel said, “lucky me.” He looked at his ring, fondly. “He changed everything. Who knows what the fuck I might be by now.”

“A lot of things, maybe caught, maybe you’d be back in Romania,” Will shrugged. “But the fact is, that was another life, not this one.”

“How many lives do you think people have?” Nigel asked, thoughtfully, and poured another drink after putting Beast on the counter, and petting him. This drink was much, much smaller.

“I think maybe we live a few, or maybe there’s different universes that we’re in that things turned out differently,” Will shrugged, and took a sip of his drink, licking his lip once. “It’s not improbable.”

“So, there’s a world out there where my Mother didn’t get hooked on anything…” Nigel mused, thoughtfully. “Good for her.”

“Possibly. Who knows, she might have been a famous dancer,” Will pointed out, but not to make Nigel feel bad about it, of course, just to show that anything was possible. “There might be a world where I knew Lee and my mother…”

Nigel nodded to himself, and imagined his mother out of the squalor they lived in, in a nice house, married to someone with class. “Sounds like a nice world, for everyone.”

Will finished his drink. “It’s not this one, so we deal with the hand we’re dealt.”

“So we do,” Nigel said, and picked Beast up, looking at him before he held him to his chest. “I like this one, no matter what I had to do to get here.”

“As you should. You’ve worked hard for everything you have, it’d be a waste to throw it away for a what if,” Will said, and smiled. He set his glass in the sink, hearing the bedroom door open.

“Why is there a  _ bag _ of wine on the bed?” Lee called out as he strolled through the hall, to the kitchen. He had a pillow crease on his face, and half of his growing hair was stuck up on the side.

“Because they didn’t give me a fucking box,” NIgel answered and walked over to Lee with a little smirk.

Lee held the bag in his hands. “But a bag of wine. There’s like three bottles in here,” he said, smirking back at Nigel. “What have you two been up to? Besides buying me wine?”

“Just showed Will the office, showed him the ropes a little, got wine on the way home. How are you feeling?” Nigel asked, as he nuzzled Lee.

“Groggy,” Lee said,  setting the wine on the counter to properly hug Nigel. “But rested.”

“Not feeling sick or anything?” Nigel asked, against Lee’s ear, softly.

“Little run down maybe, but probably just all the excitement from today,” Lee whispered back, not wanting Will to hear, who went to the back door to let the dogs out.

Nigel nodded, and kissed Lee’s forehead. “Nothing else?” he whispered back.

“I don’t think so,” Lee murmured, and smiled, turning his head to kiss Nigel on the mouth.

Nigel kissed Lee on the lips, and then looked at him. “When’s your next checkup?”

“In a few days. Before we leave we’ll have to do that,” Lee sighed.

“Yeah. Don’t worry, you’ll still have the best fucking doctors in France, okay? We’ll fly you back to Germany for checkups if we have to,” Nigel assured his husband, and kissed his forehead again.

Lee chuckled a little, nervously. “I don’t really want to go back there unless I have to.” That had been a rough point in his life.

“Okay, okay,” Nigel said, quietly, and rubbed his hand over the small of Lee’s back, comfortingly. “Maybe call your doctor, see when you can get in here.”

“You mean sooner than two days?” Lee shrugged, but nodded an understanding. They’d be leaving soon, so that made sense to do.

“Yeah, if you can,” Nigel said, and rested his face against Lee’s, losing himself in the feeling of being close to him, like this. 

Lee was still warm from the bed, and snuggled closer to Nigel, wrapped up in each other. “I’ll call in a minute.”

“Okay,” Nigel nodded, and just held Lee. He was utterly peaceful, a complete contrast to the unhinged, destructive man who’d beaten someone’s head in earlier that day. “You haven’t been puking or coughing?”

“Not since the other day, I promise,” Lee whispered, not wanting to ruin their little moment. “And if I was coughing, it could just be a cold.”

“Was it  _ lots _ of coughing?” Nigel asked, really concerned, now.

“I  _ wasn’t _ coughing, I am just…” Lee kissed Nigel to lessen his worry. “I was merely suggesting if I was coughing, it could be a just a cold.”

Nigel didn’t look relieved at all, just a little more worried with Lee’s vague feeling of exhaustion. “Okay, just … let me know if there’s anything else, okay?”

Lee knew very well he could be coming down with something, but he otherwise felt fine. “I will tell you, I promise.” Lee nuzzled against Nigel’s neck and then stepped around him to get a glass of water, despite the wine he’d set down.

Nigel watched Lee go for the water instead of wine, and frowned. “Any good dreams?”

“No, didn’t dream,” Lee said, canting his head a moment as if trying to remember. He sipped the water and then hugged Nigel again around the waist, fitting himself just under his arm, carefully.

“Your dreams are always so fucked up,” Nigel said with a little smile, and walked with Lee to the couch in the living room. He sat down, with Lee in his arms, pulling him into his lap to relax.

Lee laughed, letting Nigel hold him, glass of water in his free hand, which he sat down on the side table. “They are?”

“All of them you tell me about? Like some sort of fucked up movie,” Nigel chuckled, then nuzzled the top of Lee’s head.

“Well, I didn’t think they were fucked up, but I guess maybe to your point of view,” Lee said, smiling, he didn’t mind if Nigel thought his imagination was strange, or odd, or even fucked up. It was a little out there sometimes.

“It’s nice. Fucked up in a nice way,” Nigel said and laughed. “I like them. I like hearing about them.”

“All the weird colorful flying animals, and purple clouds?” Lee teased, curling up into Nigel, snuggled in his lap. “So, how did Will like the office?”

“He liked it okay,” Nigel nodded, and kissed Lee’s ear. “I think he’ll be good. He’s almost as protective of you as I am.”

“Must be that twin bond thing,” Lee mused, quietly, aware Will was in the next room.

“Something like that,” Nigel whispered, and smiled to himself. “Christ, imagine if I had a twin.”

“That would be a strange happenstance,” Lee said, head canted. “Do you think he’d be like you?”

“That would be fucked up. No, probably not,” Nigel laughed, unable to imagine something like that. It would be … bizarre.

“It would be, Lee had to admit. “The chances of that are very slim anyway.”

Nigel kissed Lee again, and stroked the side of Lee’s neck. “Two bears in one room is never a good idea, anyhow.”

Lee laughed out loud. “You’re just worried about your twin being a bear?”

“My twin would fucking have to be a bear,” Nigel reasoned, with a wave of his hand.

“That’s true. Twin. Can’t have two bears competing,” Lee grinned and kissed his husband. “Good thing you don’t have a twin.”

“That’s fucking right. I probably ate him in the womb,” Nigel said, with a little bite against Lee’s ear.

Lee rolled a little with laughter at that. “Cannibal fetus?”

Nigel watched Lee laugh, and nipped at his ear, again. “I needed the room.”

“Gonna eat me now?” Lee leaned in against where his husband’s teeth clamped down gently.

“Yeah, I have a sweet tooth,” Nigel whispered, and stared at Lee as he licked his lips, then kissed him, biting his lip, softly. “Would you think I’m a monster?” he whispered.

“Monster?” Lee asked, blinking slowly, and kissing Nigel back sweetly. “Why would I think that?”

“If I ate people,” Nigel said, playfully, then kissed Lee again with a little smile, but watched his reaction.

“Why would you eat people? Don't I feed you enough?” Lee laughed, watching Nigel carefully.

“You feed me plenty, Baby,” Nigel said, although usually, he was the one feeding Lee, instead. He wasn’t sure how the fuck that happened, how he’d become a fucking cook, but Lee liked it.

True enough, Lee didn’t really cook, but he did a lot of the grocery shopping, or well, at least some of it. Lee gave Nigel a look, brows furrowed. “ _ Are  _ you eating people?”

“Right now? No,” Nigel said, honestly, as he met Lee’s eyes. He wasn’t going to fucking lie, not to Lee.

“Right now…” Lee repeated back, wondering what that meant as he gazed into Nigel’s amber eyes with his own sea-blue ones.

Nigel took a deep breath, and knew this could go very, very, very wrong. “Part of  _ revenge _ , in the past.”

“How much in the past?”

“Only once,” Nigel assured Lee, seriously, and touched the side of his jaw with one hand, amazed to see that it shook, a little. He was … nervous. Lee wasn’t very judgemental but there were lots of people that would consider cannibalism grounds to walk away forever, period.

“I was … “ Nigel took a shaky breath, and felt his palm sweat. “I was pissed,  _ out of my head _ crazy.”

“When?” Lee reiterated, not sure how to feel about this yet, as it didn’t really define Nigel, or change how they were to each other, and Lee had turned his cheek to so much already, things he really shouldn’t have…

Nigel shifted his jaw, tempted to lie and say it was a long, long time ago. “When I went to Romania … Darko,” he admitted, and curled his arm around Lee’s waist, holding him, afraid to let go. He felt like throwing up, able to see himself through Lee’s eyes now.

“What did you eat?” Lee asked, hands on Nigel’s shoulders as his gaze flitted down to his collarbone, mixed emotions welling up inside of him.

Nigel curled his fingers in the back of Lee’s shirt, his throat dry. Lee was going to leave him… he could feel it. Lee was going to leave him. “I cooked his lungs…” he admitted, quietly, the sick feeling growing inside him. 

“Before or after you got treated for the gunshot?” Not that it mattered, Nigel was here now and  _ fine _ , and it really shouldn’t make a difference. Somehow though, he reasoned that it did.

Nigel took a deep breath and looked up at Lee, silent for a beat. “Before.”

“You killed and ate a man, while bleeding out,” Lee whispered, letting the words ink in, soak through his skin like maybe it would make sense. “Not getting help first.”

“Ate … part of a man,” Nigel whispered back, and felt himself start to breathe more shallowly, more quickly as he paled, watching Lee process the truth. “I was running on adrenaline … I wasn’t … thinking…”

Hell, in some religions and cultures it was a right of passage into death to eat your dead, Lee reasoned to himself, and some ate their enemies to absorb them, and take their strengths and kills inside of themselves.

Lee let out a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding. “Thinking well enough to have someone cook up some lungs… had to take a minute or two to do that…” he said, trying not to sound bitter as he let the truth settle, like a weight on his chest.

Nigel felt blood pounding in his ears, and his hands and feet tingled as he watched Lee. “Should I leave?” he whispered, breathing a little harder, trying to keep his cool.

Lee’s fingers curled into Nigel’s shoulders, gripping his shirt. “Don’t you dare.” His gaze was fierce, like no look he’d ever given Nigel before. It wasn’t even about who he ate or why or how, Lee realized; it was fact of the matter, and Nigel had time to  _ eat _ a man’s lungs before taking care of himself, before calling Lee…

Nigel froze, staring back, able to see anger in Lee’s blue eyes, something he’d never seen directed at him before. He swallowed, and took a deep breath. “Fine.”

“You… don’t get to run away when you think shits gone bad, Nigel,” Lee said, sternly, jaw shifting. “You ask me to take care of myself, but you won’t give me the same courtesy?”

Nigel blinked once, then tilted his head, taken aback. “... Wait … what?”

They kidded around a lot about if the other died, but it was a real fear of living and fighting for everything and not having Nigel. Lee got up, needing to move, needing to pace as he shook his head, hands on his hips.

“You have such disregard for your life, Nigel. Bleeding out while someone cooks up some lungs for you? Out of spite? Then you get looked at? Well of course you were critical by then…”

Nigel had expected Lee to be disgusted, to be furious at him for eating part of his victim. It took a second for Nigel’s mind to catch on that Lee was angry that he’d delayed seeing a doctor. “I get fucking tunnel vision, I knew I wasn’t going to fucking  _ die _ ,” Nigel said, but sounded apologetic, his dark eyes a little big.

“You could have. You don’t know,” Lee sighed, jaw set, glaring at his husband. “That’s like me going out without a sweater in the snow, saying I’d be fine! I’m moving around, I won’t lose any fingers or toes from frostbite if I stand in it a little longer.”

Nigel swallowed, and hunched his shoulders a little as Lee ranted at him. “Okay, it was fucking dumb. I should have got help right fucking away, but when you’ve got all that adrenaline going, you don’t feel pain, you don’t get how bad it is …” Nigel said, spreading his hands. “I’m sorry.”

“Did I not cross your mind at all while that happened?” Lee asked, almost too quietly, an almost silent seething in him that almost felt like the clouds bundling up before a storm. “Every time I go out for a run, I get a reminder with the security in cars tailing me that I’ve got to keep close to them, so  _ you _ know I’m safe.”

Nigel looked a little sheepish at that, and took another deep breath, looking at his healing arm. “Yeah …” Nigel sighed, “okay, yeah. I fucked up, Baby.”

Lee took deeper breaths, wrangling in his frustration and anger that rarely saw the light of day, rubbing his chest where it hurt a little with how deeply he was trying to get ahold of it. “As… as for the eating of people,” he sighed, taking a breathing, “societies have been doing that for years, they eat their dead to honor them.” Granted, some of those people went crazy…

Nigel’s expression went a little hopeful, and he stood, slowly. “I don’t know why I did it, it just … it felt right. He tried to take something from me, I took something from him. I’m not going to start fucking cooking people and eggs,” he reassured his husband.

“I wouldn’t be eating your eggs anymore,” Lee said, quietly, looking at the floor.

Nigel sighed, and stepped closer. “Not going to happen,” he said, and touched the side of Lee’s arm. “I promise.”

“No more eating people?” Lee asked, lifting his gaze to meet Nigel’s.

Nigel nodded, and took Lee’s hand, holding it to his chest. “Yeah. No more eating people, I promise,” he said, and bent his head to kiss Lee’s knuckles, solemnly.

Lee’s fingers curled against Nigel’s chest and he stepped closer. “I can’t stay mad at you.”

A smile broke through Nigel’s tension like the sun through clouds, and he rested his face against Lee’s. “I thought you’d be disgusted.”

“Well, it’s not my first choice of meat, and no I won’t be eating it, but…” Lee shrugged, he was still conflicted, but it didn’t mean he loved Nigel any less, as he knew the man  _ was _ a bear, he would do brutal things.

Nigel touched the side of Lee’s face, and hugged him tightly, with both arms. “Won’t do it again, baby,” he whispered, and rubbed his big hands over Lee’s back, almost shaking with how relieved he was that Lee didn’t storm out and tell him never to try to reach him again. Nigel had imagined it, over and over ever since.

“Okay,” Lee whispered, wrapping his own arms around Nigel tightly, resting his face in the crook of his thick neck, next to the bird tattoo.

“I fucking love you,” Nigel whispered, and cupped the back of Lee’s head with one hand. “I love you. I’m … sorry.”

Lee nuzzled in and swallowed hard. “Promise me you’ll be more careful.”

“I’ll be more careful,” Nigel whispered, and nuzzled Lee’s face. “I’ll act like you’re watching, okay?”

“Will you?” Lee asked, knowingly, aware that Nigel was  _ very _ careful about how he acted when he was around.

“Yeah, I will, I promise,” Nigel said, softly, and kissed Lee to seal the promise.

Lee cupped Nigel’s jaw for once as they kissed, softly, slowly. “Good. I love you, too.”

“I thought you’d be fucking disgusted, never want to see me again,” Nigel whispered, and nuzzled Lee.

“You always think the worst,” Lee whispered back, resting their foreheads together.

“Yeah, well, for a long fucking time, that’s all I had,” Nigel said with a sad smile, then kissed Lee again, and hugged him tight. “I’m fucking glad I told you,” he whispered.

“Maybe we need to not keep things from each other,” Lee suggested, wrapping ever limb around Nigel he possibly could.

Nigel sighed, and nodded, then chewed his lower lip. “In that case …” he said, tentatively, “I … had one cigarette in Bucharest.”“Just one?” Lee asked, one brow raised speculatively at Nigel.

Nigel put Lee’s hand over his heart, and looked at him very, very seriously. “Just one, none before, not a fucking one since,” Nigel said, solidly.

“Good.” Lee breathed a sigh of relief.

Nigel heaved a sigh and hugged Lee again, with a little smile. “Confession is good for the fucking soul.”

“It’s nice to unburden, isn’t it?” Lee asked, smiling up at Nigel as they snuggled, reconciled, in the living room.

“Weird word for it, but … yeah,” Nigel murmured, so relieved that he felt a little like he was floating on the inside.

“I used to unburden myself of things and people, before you. It felt freeing, so I can imagine that being honest would feel the same way,” Lee said, shrugging his shoulders.

“You’re always honest,” Nigel smiled, and brushed his hand down Lee’s cheek, admiring him.

“I wonder if that’s sort of a bad thing with your line of work though; me being honest,” Lee sighed, frowning.

“Don’t worry about it,” Nigel said, softly, and thumbed Lee’s scruffy chin as he looked into his bright blue eyes. 

“Knowing you has complicated my life in the best ways,” Lee admitted, leaning in for another kiss.

“Same thing here, baby, exactly,” Nigel said, honestly, before he kissed Lee deeply, locking their lips together.


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning Will got up and ready to go see Jack. Nigel’s  gave him a ride there since his car was still back in Virginia. He’d get it on the way back considering Quantico was on the way. Once at the Academy, Will got out and the men said they’d wait. Will walked the halls one last time, and to his office first, clearing it out. Once he’d packed up his things, which wasn’t much, he made his way to the second level to Jack’s office. Tapping on the door lightly, he shifted the box of things in his arms.   
  
“Come in,” Jack said through the door, without looking up.

Will set the box down by the door as he walked in and gave Jack his full attention. “You wanted to see me.”

“Sit down,” Jack said, bluntly, and got up to close the door, then noticed the box, and stopped cold before he turned to look at Will. “This is yours?”

“Yes. I’m consulting one last time now and then I’m… retiring from the FBI all together,” Will explained, and took a seat.

Jack looked surprised at that, and put his hand on his hip, looked at the box, then back at Will as he set his jaw as he sat behind the desk. “Because we argued?”

“No. I can’t do this anymore. I’m losing myself inside the heads of these murderers and psychopaths, I thought it was just the illness, but I don’t want to do it, I  _ can’t _ do it. I want to go home at night and sleep, Jack,” Will explained.

“You can sleep knowing that these guys are going to slip through our fingers?” Jack asked, pointedly.

“I’m going to sleep in general, Jack. I can’t do what you want me to do and safely take care of myself. I’m moving in with my brother, he needs me,” Will said, shrugging his shoulders-- he wouldn’t be budged.

“Your brother needs you ...” Jack said, as he leaned back in his chair. “You’re going to throw away everything you can do, for all of those people out there just to help one man?”

“My brother battled cancer for twelve years, and he could very well fall back, and I’ll have nothing to show for my time with him after never knowing him my whole life.” Will stood up, hands in his pockets. “You’ll find someone else who can do what I do without all the crazy.” Will leveled Jack with a look. “Did you check into the man I told you about?”

Jack took a deep breath, and then sighed it out as he leaned back in his chair. “As it was the only lead you gave me, yes. I was obligated to … he’s the head of a large ring of child prostitution networks, or he was, I should say. Interpol investigated and picked him up this morning, just before you brought your box in and quit.”

“My going away gift to you,” Will offered, almost sarcastically.

“I’m touched,” Jack retorted, just as sarcastically, and turned a pen over and over in his hand. “I can’t refuse your resignation. I can’t stop you, but I don’t agree.”

“You don’t have to,” Will offered his hand for one more handshake, this one more direct than their first.

Jack sighed, and stood to shake Will’s hand with a look of regret. “If you change your mind…”

“I won’t. Please don’t track me down.” Will let go and went to pick up his box, hoisting it into his arms. “Goodbye, Jack.” He nodded and shut the door behind him.

Jack let Will walk out, and cradled his face in both hands once the door was shut, shoulders sinking.

***

“It’s done,” Will said dropping his box of things, including what he needed from home, a suitcase of clothes and a few other boxes that security took up for him, in the hall by the elevator.

  
Nigel looked over at Will from where he was kicking a soccer ball for the dogs in the expanse of the huge penthouse, and grinned. “And? How’d he take it?”

“Terribly. He all but begged me to stay but using my empathy against me. Almost worked,” Will sighed, shaking his head.

“That bad?” Lee asked, looking ready to leave, dressed with shoes on and Beauty waiting with her leash.

“Yeah. Going somewhere I should know about?” Will asked, protectively.

Lee shook his head. “Doctor appointment before we leave.”

“Good.” Will folded his arms over his chest, and looked from Lee to Nigel. “It's taken care of.”

“But it didn’t work,” Nigel said with a little smile, and raised an eyebrow at Will.

Will shrugged. “Jack can guilt me all he wants. He needs to start doing his job, not me.”

“Good fucking point,” Nigel chuckled. “You’re free. How does it feel? Cage door is open.”

Another shrug from Will. “I don't know yet.”

“I’m sure it’ll fucking come to you,” Nigel said.

“I’m being let free, I guess,  in a way,” Will said, and smiled a little. “Been free before.”

“Welcome back to the fucking wilderness,” Nigel said, and shrugged his jacket on, ready to go with Lee.

“Do you need me to come along?” Will asked, just to be sure, but Lee waved him off.

“We’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, back soon,” Nigel said, as they walked to the elevator, and climbed in. 

Nigel wrapped one arm around Lee as they descended. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel fine,” Lee said, canting his head up at Nigel where he was all but snuggled into his side.

“Still tired?” Nigel asked, as the doors opened and they walked out, toward the car.

“A little,” Lee shrugged, slipping into the passenger seat. He felt run down, but otherwise fine.

Nigel opened Lee’s door for him, and slid into the driver’s seat, then drove out of their parkade, toward the doctor’s office. “No coughing or anything, right?”

Lee shook his head. “No coughing. Little ache in my chest yesterday but I think it was just emotion.”

“That’s not fucking good,” Nigel sighed as he drove, and stole a look at Lee as he took a corner slowly.

“I was upset! It’s not happened before or since then,” Lee promised.

“Okay, was this during your run or … when we were talking?” Nigel asked, not sure he really wanted to know.

“When we were talking.” Lee sighed, and took Nigel’s hand. “I think it’s normal to get a little choked up emotionally over things.”

Nigel squeezed Lee’s hand and nodded. “Yeah,” he sighed, “fuck, I was sure you were going to leave.”

“We said til death do us part,” Lee reminded his husband, squeezing his hand back, three times, gently.

Nigel glowed a little from the inside out, and raised Lee’s hand to kiss his knuckles, then parked the car outside of the doctor’s office, and looked at Lee. “Yeah, we did.”

“I plan to uphold that.” Lee leaned over and kissed Nigel once before getting out, and walking around the side of the car, a cool nearly spring breeze picked up around them.

“So do I,” Nigel said, happily, and kissed Lee on the lips, “never thought I’d find anyone who would actually fucking mean that.”

“I mean everything I say,” Lee said, taking Nigel’s hand again as they walked. As they got closer, Lee grew more worried, as he always had when they went to these appointments.

Nigel squeezed Lee’s hand, and checked in for him at the desk before they took a seat in the waiting room. “It’s okay, baby. Just a checkup,” he whispered. He’d been worried before, but when Lee was scared, Nigel forced his own worries aside.

Lee had a positive attitude, but having beat this once, this sort of thing loomed over them in heavy waves. Lee curled his hands together, wringing them. “I know, I know…”

Nigel took Lee’s hand again, gently, and rubbed it with his own, slowly. “Everything’s gonna be okay, we’ll be in France in a few days. You’ll fucking love it. It’s beautiful.”

“Wine, cheese, bread,” Lee said, like a little mantra to get through this appointment and gone.

Nigel smiled, and kissed Lee’s cheek as he chanted to himself. “Wine, cheese, bread…” Nigel whispered in Lee’s ear, “and lots of fucking.”

Lee turned his head to catch Nigel’s lips in a kiss, squeezing their hands together by adding his other one. “You know exactly how to make me want to get through this faster.”

“I know you, Baby,” Nigel whispered, and looked up when Lee’s name was called. “Here we go.”

Lee got up, hand still in Nigel’s as they walked into the next room behind the nurse. He let go only to take off his shoes and jacket, and get on the scale, have his temperature taken, and his blood pressure taken as well. Once done and shown into a room, he kept Nigel close.

Nigel did as he always did during the check ups. He sat beside Lee, arm around him, waiting for the doctor to come in. “Did you lose weight?”

“I think a little,” Lee said, wishing he’d paid attention to the scale, but he’d learned a long time ago to not look. “You were gone, we’ve been taking care of Will. Busy.”

Nigel was about to reply when Lee’s doctor walked in, file in hand. “Hi, Lee, how are you feeling?” he asked, and smiled at both Lee and Nigel.

“Tired,” Lee admitted. “But we’ve been taking care of my brother the last few weeks.”

“That’s nice of you, what’s your brother suffering from?” the doctor asked, as he started to listen to Lee’s chest through his thin shirt.

“He had encephalitis,” Lee whispered, not wanting to be too loud when the doctor listened. 

“That’s pretty serious. How is he?” the doctor asked as he hung his stethoscope around his neck and reviewed Lee’s readings from before, pausing at his temperature.

“He’s much better. We went for a run together yesterday,” Lee answered, gauging the doctor’s look on his face with a look of his own, brows furrowed slightly.

“Have you been feeling warm? Your temperature was a little high this morning,” the doctor said, and reached out to palpate Lee’s lymph nodes in his neck, gently. “Does this hurt?”

“No more than usual, I guess-” Lee started to say and then winced, lifting his head a little higher at the prodding. “A little bit.”

“What kind of encephalitis did your brother have?” the doctor asked, suspiciously.

“Autoimmune something,” Lee said, not exactly able to remember the exact name.

“Okay, that’s a relief. Your lymph nodes are a little swollen. Have you been sweating? Is your throat sore?” the doctor asked, and Nigel sat closer to Lee, worried.

Lee swallowed, only a little difficult to do so, and shook his head. “No. I mean, no more than usual? I’ve been sleeping a lot more the last few days.”

The doctor felt the back of Lee’s neck, and then under his armpits, too. “It’s just the lymph nodes in your neck. I’d like to order some blood work, to be sure that this isn’t something serious.”

“It could just be something like a cold right?” Lee asked, palms sweating at the thought of it being anything else.

“Exactly, and it probably is, but it’s best to be a little paranoid, in your case,” the doctor said, and filled out a sheet for bloodwork, then used a phone on the wall to page someone to come collect it. “Have you been coughing at all?”

“No. It’s been a little hard to breath, my chest hurt for a little bit yesterday,” Lee answered honestly, reaching to take Nigel’s hand in his sweaty one.

“Okay, what kind of hurt was it?” the doctor asked. “Crushing pressure?”

Lee put his free hand on the middle of his chest. “An ache, I guess it might have been pressure. Hard to breathe for a minute.”

“Have you felt that since?” the doctor asked, and wrote an order for a heart test as well, while Lee was here, just to be certain.

“On the run this morning, but it didn’t last long.”

“You didn’t tell me that!” Nigel exclaimed, worried as he looked at his husband with a stern expression. 

The doctor used the phone to page for an ECG, and hung up again.

Lee ducked his head, but held on to Nigel’s hand. “It was only a second, didn’t last long enough to think about.”

“Jesus Christ, if you can’t fucking breathe that’s a big fucking deal!” Nigel said, his dark eyes more anxious than angry.    
  
“I’m sure it was just a momentary breathlessness,” the doctor said, gently, and waved in the lab tech to take Lee’s blood. “It happens to runners now and then.”

Lee put out his free arm, sleeve rolled up to the bicep, and looked at Nigel. “I thought it was one of those cramps that I get sometimes, in the side or the chest…”

“Has this happened before when you’re running? Chest pain?” Nigel asked, alarmed as the tech drew a few vials of blood, easily, and labelled them.

“Yeah, usually on really cold mornings,” Lee said, shrugging. “It’s not uncommon.”

The lab tech left, and another person pushed a machine in with lots of wires. “Here’s our ECG. Lee, I’m going to have you lay down and take your shirt off, okay?” the doctor asked, and gestured for Nigel to move so that Lee could do so. “This will tell us how your heart is doing, if you’ve had problems with it in the last day or so, it will show up here.”

Lee pulled his shirt off and then folded it and laid with his head closest to Nigel, to look up at him. “I’m sure it’s nothing…”

Nigel just took a deep breath, and watched as the tech put stickers all over Lee’s chest, and a few on his arms and legs, then hooked those to some wires and asked Lee to breathe normally and lie still. A few seconds went by, and the machine printed some squiggly lines on a sheet of paper, then the tech pulled the stickers and wires off of Lee.    
  
The doctor looked the paper over, and nodded. “No evidence of anything abnormal with your heart, Lee.”

Letting out a breath he wasn’t aware he’d been holding, Lee closed his eyes and nodded. “Could just be nothing then.”

“Could very well just be the start of a cold you’re not aware of yet, your lungs are more sensitive than most,” the doctor said as Nigel handed Lee his shirt and helped him sit up.

Lee had thrown that idea around too, but he and Nigel were always quick to assume the worst considering it  _ could  _ be the worst. Lee put his shirt on, rolling down the long sleeves. “Hopefully that’s all it is.”

“Yeah,” Nigel sighed, and rubbed Lee’s back, slowly, his expression grim. “So, we just go home now?” Nigel asked. “I’ll call with the results of the bloodwork tomorrow, that will give us a clue about what’s going on,” the doctor reassured them.

Lee nodded, getting his boots back on and his coat, and slid off the table. “And if it’s a cold, I can just take whatever for that?”

“Yes, if you start to get cold or flu symptoms, then I’m sure that’s what’s causing your breathlessness, and you can treat it as you usually would,” the doctor nodded, and smiled at them both before letting himself out.

Once alone,  Lee looked at Nigel, and took a deep breath, which left him feeling tight chested and little winded.  “Let’s go home.”

“Okay,” Nigel said and rubbed Lee’s chest with his hand, then kissed him and helped him off the table. “Let’s go. Tired?” Nigel’s mind reeled at the thought of Lee sick again, more coughing, more blood, watching him get rail thin, again.

Lee took a minute and hugged Nigel, hooking his arms under his and then clasping on his shoulders. “I feel exhausted.”

Nigel kissed Lee on the lips, and managed to smile a little. “Should I carry you to the car like a bride?”

Lee rolled his eyes and let go, taking Nigel’s hand. “No, I can walk.”

“Okay, we’ll go home, you can have a nap with Beauty. She’ll be happy with that,” Nigel said as he put his own coat on Lee’s shoulders, and walked out with him, hand in hand.

“Not cold,” Lee said, but didn’t take the coat off. They walked to the car and he got in, shrugging it off, suddenly  _ too _ hot.

“You’re fucking sweating,” Nigel said after starting the car. He touched Lee’s face with his hand, and then backed out of their parking spot. “We’ll get you some water at home.”

Lee could remember a time he kept bottles of water in the car and his backpack, but those days were gone, and now he wished he was still prepared. He sat back, and closed his eyes, nodding his head slowly.

They were home soon, and Nigel opened Lee’s car door, then helped him out, into his arms. “Come on, Baby.”

The outing had done Lee in, as he all but curled up into Nigel. “I can walk, just tired…”

“I know,” Nigel said, and let Lee walk, but kept him close. “Shower, then nap, okay? The water will cool you off.”

Lee hadn't felt so awful since he was very sick last time, when the cancer got to his lungs. They got in the elevator and Lee took a deep breath, and started to cough, the air thick feeling in his chest.

Nigel sighed, and patted Lee’s back, helping him cough. “Okay, are you bleeding again?” he asked, and helped Lee out when they reached the top of the building.

“No,” Lee said, looking at his hand where his coughed, and luckily nothing came out. The doors opened and Lee shuffled back in, straight to the kitchen to get a glass of water and then set the tea kettle on.

“I can get this shit, go to bed,” Nigel sighed, one hand against Lee’s back to guide him into the bedroom to rest.

“I'm  _ fine _ ,” Lee insisted, but took his water and shuffled past his brother and into the master bedroom.

Nigel sighed, and gave Will a look, then followed Lee into the bedroom after he made him a cup of tea. He started a bath in the big tub, with bubbles, and walked out to Lee. “How fucking long does it take to do fucking bloodwork?”

“A few days at most?” Lee murmured, looking at Nigel, miserable. He was starting to feel the ache of fever and chill all at once.

Nigel started to peel Lee’s clothes off gently, and walked him to the tub full of lukewarm water, then helped him in. “They’d fucking better do it faster than that. They put it in a fucking machine, right?” Nigel grumbled, and felt his husband’s face.

“I think I’m just sick,” Lee said, suddenly feeling very… well, everything, all at once. His head throbbed, and he closed his eyes to the light in the bathroom.

“What do you fucking mean _ just _ sick?” Nigel asked, as he helped Lee into the tub, and sat on the edge, wetting Lee’s short hair with his hand, slowly.

“A cold,” Lee said, leaning over against Nigel’s thigh, huffing a big sigh, which he coughed out the second time, rubbing his chest.

“Are you sure?” Nigel asked, as he smoothed water over Lee’s neck, and passed his fingers over Lee’s swollen lymph nodes.

“Relapse wouldn’t feel like this,” Lee groaned, face tilting off to the side to look up at Nigel. “Which means you should probably take some vitamins and stuff to fend it off.”

“Do you have vitamins?” Nigel asked, hopefully. That weight in his chest would go away if he was sure Lee just had a fucking cold, not more cancer.

“We have them in the medicine cabinet,” Lee answered, gesturing his head a little to the mirror.

“Okay, just wait a fucking second,” Nigel said and went to the cabinet, then came back with three bottles, and put them on the ledge of the bathtub for Lee. “So, why do you think this is just a cold?”

“I’m starting to feel stuffed up,” Lee answered again, sheepishly this time. “Like a chest and head cold…” He opened the bottles and shook out one of each. “Water?” 

Nigel heaved a sigh of relief and wandered out to the kitchen, then came back with a bottle of water, handing it over. “Christ, if this is just a cold, I’m the happiest fucking man in the world.”

Lee cracked the bottle open and swallowed the pills. “We’re gonna need cold medicine if that’s the case.”

“I’ll get you anything you fucking want,” Nigel promised, and texted for one of the guards to go out and get cold medication, pronto, then set his phone aside, with intense relief. “Fuck, you’ve had cancer around me but never a fucking cold,” he laughed.

“I was very careful about not getting sick,” Lee shrugged, already starting to sound stuffed up. He leaned back in the tub, sweating.

“You already sound … funny,” Nigel chuckled, and passed a hand over Lee’s hair, feeling sort of stupid as it became more obvious they panicked about a cold. “It changes your accent.”

The brunet frowned up at his husband, every word just a little off as he spoke. “No, it doesn’t.”

“Yeah, it fucking does,” Nigel laughed, and cleared his throat. “You sound like a muppet or something,” he smiled.

Lee made a face up at Nigel, very aware he could get sick as much as Lee was going to be. “Take the vitamins please.”

“What, me? Why?” Nigel asked, with a scoff on his handsome features.

“Don’t need you or Will getting sick also,” Lee mentioned and pulled the plug in the tub, wrinkly from the being in too long.

“I never get sick,” Nigel said, proudly, as he helped Lee out and wrapped him in a towel.

“Never say never,” Lee whispered, voice getting rough now as his throat started to swell.

“Never. Not even when I was fucking poor, I have the fucking immune system of an ox,” Nigel bragged, and offered Lee his water again.

“Knock on wood, you’re going to get sick.” Lee took a sip of water and then shuffled out, to the bedroom and flopped down, still wet, on the bed.

“I’m not going to get sick,” Nigel said, and ducked out of the room for a moment, then came back with a package of cold medication. “Okay, here. They found something.”

“Surprised if they didn’t,” Lee said and sat up, opening his hand for the package.

Nigel put a few pills in Lee’s hand after tearing through the thick packaging, and handed him his water again. “Hopefully that helps.”

Lee took them down with a few gulps and then flopped back down into bed, and curled up, still in his towel. “Thanks.”

Nigel pulled off his shirt and laid down with Lee, arms around him, loosely. “You scared the shit out of me…”

“ _ I _ scared you?” Lee chuckled, and turned his head to cough into his arm with a groan. He tucked himself into Nigel, too hot and yet shivering. Lee felt safest right there.

“Yes, you fucking scared me with your swollen neck and your tiredness,” Nigel said, as he held Lee, rubbing his back. “Scared the shit out of me.”

Lee nuzzled into Nigel, eyes closing, everything having come to a head suddenly, he was surprised he was even awake. “Sorry, my bear.” “S’okay,” Nigel sighed, and yawned now that the worry was fading. Lee sounded congested as hell, which was reassuring, at the moment. “You can make it up to me later,” he chuckled.

Lee snorted in on accident, and hid his face in Nigel’s chest as he chuckled, his voice creaking with every weird sound that came out of him, voice breaking. “I’ll try.”

“God, you sound fucking awful,” Nigel laughed, and rubbed Lee’s back. “Sleep, baby.”

Lee sniffled and fell asleep on Nigel, snoring softly.

Nigel wrapped his arms around Lee, and held him as he slept, then very slowly eased himself from under Lee to go to the bathroom. He checked to make sure Lee was still asleep, and wandered out to the kitchen, clearing his throat. It felt like he’d swallowed … something, sand, or sawdust or something like that.

“How is he?” Will asked, putting something in one lot on the stove for the dogs, another pot which chicken stock and veggies for soup.

“It’s just a fucking cold,” Nigel said, with relief, and started to make coffee, so relieved that he was smiling to himself. “We thought it might be worse. His chest has been tight and his nodes are swollen… but then he got stuffed up, thank fucking god.”

“So a cold is safe for him?” Will asked, throwing chunks of chicken into the broth.

“It’s not going to kill him, maybe back when he was really, really sick, but now? No,” Nigel said. “He really scared the fuck out of me in the doctor’s office. He said he was short of breath when he was running today. I remember him coughing pieces of his fucking lungs out when he was sick … I saw it all going back there.”

“You would have known sooner though if he were  _ that _ sick again, wouldn’t you?” Will’s brows furrowed a little, stirring the soup.

“Who fucking knows, that’s why we get all these checkups, to catch it ear-” Nigel paused, turned his head, and sneezed, which made Beast bark at him, and try to climb his leg.

Will canted his head at Nigel, brow raised knowingly. “You’re getting sick.”

“No. I don’t get sick,” Nigel scoffed, and bent down to pick Beast up, holding him as Beast sniffed at Nigel’s face.

“First time for everything,” Will mentioned, and tossed a bit of pepper into the soup. “At any rate, I’m making enough soup it won’t matter if you get sick too.”

Nigel stifled a cough, and took a peek at the soup. “Lee knows about the lungs,” Nigel said as he took a deep breath of the soup.

“You told him?” Will looked wary and impressed all at once.

“Yeah,” Nigel nodded, and cleared his throat again, then poured a drink to clear the scratching feeling away with a burning wash of booze. “It … came up. I didn’t lie. He was pissed.”

“Was he? Not pissed enough, if he’s still here,” Will pointed out, watching Nigel carefully. “You should probably sleep when he does.”

“He was surprised by the lungs, but … he was pissed because I did all that while I was bleeding out,” Nigel said, with a smile that lit up his eyes. “He yelled at me. Have you ever seen him pissed off?” Nigel’s eyes gleamed at the memory of Lee’s fury, all because he’d endangered himself. In a strange way, he had never felt so loved.

“I vaguely remember him yelling at the doctor at the hospital when you two had me admitted,” Will said, stirring the soup and then covered it to boil. “Was it nice to see his resolve wash away?”

Nigel took a deep breath, and finished his drink. “Yeah, yeah it was nice,” he murmured, his face aglow at the thought before he turned away to cough, deeply.

“You need to go lie down,” Will insisted, pouring hot water over a cup of tea for Nigel and pushing it toward him.

Nigel took the tea, admittedly starting to feel heavier by the second, and took a sip. “Yeah, yeah. Fuck, I haven’t been sick since I was a fucking kid…”

“We all get it at some point, and you were injured before this, blood loss and all that, you’re a little more susceptible to it.” Will gently started to push Nigel toward the hall to the bedroom.

Nigel grunted, and let Will nudge him along with Beast in his arms. “Yeah, yeah. Alright,” he muttered, sounding increasingly congested as he let himself into the bedroom, and closed the door to the bedroom behind him, then climbed into bed with Lee, Beast snuggled between them.


	9. Chapter 9

With Nigel and Lee both sick, Will took to picking up the penthouse, taking care of the dogs, getting some laundry done, and making sure they were fed and medicated. Will was on a lot of medication himself, and had luckily not gotten it… yet. He doused himself with vitamins and stayed hydrated just to make sure he wouldn’t. It was his turn to repay them for all they did when he was out of his mind ill.

More soup simmering on the stove, the second day in, Will poured up soup into bowls and took them along with glasses of theraflu into the master bedroom, knocking first, with Beauty coming in behind him with a box of cold pills.

Nigel raised his head. It felt as though it was filled with wet sand, blocking off his nasal passages, his ears, making his eyes and lungs burn. He opened his eyes to see Will and Beauty, and pushed himself into sitting up. “Am I fucking dead yet?”

“No,” Will hummed, quietly, as Lee slept on, which was mostly what he had been doing whenever Will saw him. The doctor had called to confirm it was just a cold. Will set down the soups on either bed table along with the hot drinks and took the pills from Beauty and popped a few out for each other them.

“Thanks,” Nigel managed, his hair a mess, skin sticky with sweat. “You don’t have to take care of us, it’s okay … just a cold,” he muttered. His voice was a near octave lower with the cold that was settling into his chest.

“You took care of me,” Will said, plainly, and went over to Lee to help him sit up, gently waking him. “Hey, I need you awake for a little bit, got some soup and medication.”

Lee’s face twisted up at that and let Will help him into a better position. Will handed him the hot beverage and pills, which he took with a dissatisfied look on his face. “Gross.”

Nigel turned his head away from Lee, and hacked, his back flexing as he coughed against his hand, and then swallowed hard. “Ugh. Thanks,” he said, and patted Lee’s arm. “Baby, you need to eat, come on.”

Nigel looked at Will through bleary eyes. “Aren’t you fucking afraid of getting it?”

“With everything I am taking, I’m not too worried,” Will chuckled, sure he’d have gotten it by now. He handed Lee the bowl of soup which his brother looked at warily, and then slurped into his mouth a little so the two of them would stop bothering him over eating.

“Yeah I thought I wouldn’t get it either,” Nigel rasped, and picked up his bowl of soup, drinking out of it like a mug, noisily, his manners well-eroded by feeling like shit. “Good.”

If he got sick, then he got sick; Will wouldn’t worry over it too much. “It’s not the best, but it’ll work for what we have in the kitchen.”  _ We _ felt odd to say, but Will did live here now, with his brother and brother-in-law.

“It’s good, don’t worry about it,” Nigel said, and blew his nose into a kleenex, noisily, and climbed out of bed with a groan to shuffle to the bathroom. “As good as I could fucking do.”

“Thanks,” Will said, and helped Lee with his drink again, taking the empty bowls, which Beauty reached up for to take in her mouth, back to the kitchen.

Nigel watched Beauty as he walked back out of the bathroom, his hair plastered down to his skull from the water he splashed on his aching face. He crawled back into bed with Lee, with a sniffle. “How’re you feeling?”

Will left them to it as Lee set the finished glass of nasty stuff in his hand. Lee curled up around Nigel, wrinkling up his nose. “Been better. You?”

“Same. Can’t stop fucking sweating, want to peel my skin off,” he muttered, and rubbed Lee’s back.

Lee was having a hard time, as his body tried to keep up, but he wasn’t in any danger, just harder to fend it off. “I like your skin, don’t do that…”

“I’ll leave the hair on,” Nigel promised, through a stuffed nose. He reached over to rub Lee’s chest, and managed a smile.

“You sound terrible,” Lee whispered, throat croaky still, harder to talk without it hurting, let alone swallow anything not warm.

“Yeah? So do you,” he smiled, wearily, “what a fucking couple.”

“Better to share a cold than to share cancer,” Lee pointed out, wheezing a little. He pulled away and coughed, using a tissue to spit up some of the gunk.

Nigel clapped Lee on the back with one hand, helping him. “Not going to argue with that.”

“Still not as bad as coughing up blood,” Lee mentioned with reddened, watery eyes.

“You’re sure you’re not coughing up blood, right? You checked?” Nigel asked, and downed his tea, quickly, like it was a shot of something strong.

Lee rolled his eyes and showed Nigel the tissue, nothing but nasty green mucus. “Whattya think?”

“Fucking disgusting, but not blood,” Nigel chuckled, and grabbed yet another kleenex to try and blow his nose, again. “So I’m happy. This will fucking pass.”

“Me too,” Lee groaned and rolled to flop his arm onto Nigel’s chest, face between him and the bed.

“Are you sore?” Nigel muttered. Both of them were flushed, bleary-eyed and exhausted.

“Yeah,” Lee snorted, coughing again, turning his head. “How long is this going to last?”

“A week?” Nigel guessed, and coughed with Lee, deep and hacking as he tried not to cough right on Lee, too much.

Lee groaned and then curled up into Nigel again. “Sorry  I got you sick.”

“It’s okay, Baby,” Nigel muttered, and stifled a cough, “I was the one kissing you.”

Lee laughed and then coughed again, groaning as his chest burned. “You only kiss me? I don’t kiss you?”

“You kiss me sometimes,” Nigel said, and patted Lee’s sweaty back with his big hand. “I think I kiss you more,” he said, after a sneeze that made him turn away and grope for a handful of kleenex to blow his nose into.

“We are disgusting right now and all I really want to do is blow you,” Lee sighed, sure he would not make it through even a minute of trying.

Nigel burst out laughing, and laid down in bed as the laugh turned into a cough. “You fucking couldn’t. You couldn’t fucking breathe. As much as I like choking you on my cock, I don’t actually want to  _ choke _ you on my cock,” he laughed.

“Why can’t we just fuck the colds away?” Lee grinned laying his head on Nigel’s stomach, arm around him.

“God, I wish we could,” Nigel sighed, and looked at Lee, fondly. “We’ll make up for it in France.”

“Oh,” Lee sighed, too. “We’re supposed to be in France right now.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, France will fucking be there when we’re ready,” Nigel said, after clearing his throat. 

Lee nuzzled his face into Nigel’s stomach and then moved up to rest his head on his chest. “Yeah…” he yawned, exhausted.

Nigel picked up his phone from the nightstand and flipped to a few pictures to show Lee of their house. “See? Furnished and everything,” he said, showing the living room to Lee. “Big ass wine cellar in the basement…”

Lee hummed as he looked at the pictures. “I can’t wait to try that pool…”

“I fucking know. It looks good,” NIgel hummed, and showed Lee another photo of the indoor pool, which looked complete now with a few nice lounge chairs around it and a fresh stack of towels. “Do you want wine in the cellar or-” Nigel sneezed and blew his nose again, cursing under his breath. “Want to get it yourself?”

“Maybe some, but I want to fill it with wines we find there,” Lee suggested, looking at the furniture. “Who decorated?”

“Some French guy, I don’t know the name. I told him not to make it too fucking frilly. Just nice,” Nigel said and then hacked against his free hand. “Just because we’re two men fucking doesn’t mean everything has to be fucking pink.”

Lee laughed, wheezing and crackling a little, and then rolled to snuggled into Nigel a little more. “I don’t even like pink.”

“Only pink I like is your ass after a good spanking,” Nigel smiled, and rubbed Lee’s back, slowly.

Lee groaned at the thought, really wishing he was up for more. “Are we making a spanking room in the new place?”

“That was gonna be a surprise,” Nigel smirked, and flipped to a picture of a room painted deep, deep red, equipped with a sex swing, ropes, a padded table, and various implements on the walls. “We’ll warn Will.”

The brunet squirmed against Nigel, fingers digging deep into his side with a tingle of excitement. “I hope his room is on the other side of the house.”

“It is, trust me,” Nigel assured Lee, and managed a soft bite against his earlobe. 

What Lee would give to roll over on Nigel right there and get fucked, but the thought of moving more than an inch made him inwardly groan. Everything ached. “Good. We’re going to get a lot of use out of it once we’re better.”

“We’re going to all but fucking live in there,” Nigel whispered against Lee’s ear, and kissed it before he sneezed against Lee’s neck, then wiped it with a kleenex. “Sorry, Baby. Not sexy.”

Lee wrinkled up his nose at that and then laughed, breathlessly. “Nothing about us is sexy right now.”

“We should just go sit in the fucking tub,” Nigel murmured, with a sniffle. “Just get wrinkly and naked.”

“We’ll look like old men,” Lee snorted, but started to crawl over Nigel and off the bed, very slowly.

“I feel like a fucking old man,” Nigel grunted, and crawled after Lee, toward the bathroom.

Lee shed his pajamas on the ground and started up the tub. “You are an old man,” Lee teased, hoarsely.

Nigel grunted and slipped off his pajama pants, then rubbed his completely grey chest hair with one hand, trying to soothe his aching chest. “You like it.”

Picking up the scented salts, Lee threw some into the water, and then slipped down into it, sitting forward to make room for Nigel. The tub was huge, and brought Lee right back to when he was very sick and napping in it with Nigel. “I love it.”

Nigel climbed in slowly, and sat down in the water, and wrapped his arm around Lee’s shoulders. “You want me to be your dirty old man, huh?” Nigel asked, with bloodshot eyes.

“You’re not dirty,” Lee laughed, coughing into his arm, and then took a deep breath. He sat with his back to Nigel’s chest.

Nigel took the soap and lathered it over Lee’s chest, slowly, pulling him back into a feverish embrace. “The fuck I’m not, I just had a whole room made to spank you in.”

Lee wiggled back against Nigel, ass against his cock, suggestively. “Okay, maybe you’re a _ little _ dirty.”

Nigel groaned, and rubbed his hands over Lee’s thighs. “You’re an eager young thing. We’re good together. Perfect fit-” he whispered in a raspy voice, over a sore throat.

Letting out a hearty chuckle, Lee rested his hand on Nigel’s knee. “We’re very good together.”

“Two perverts, in love,” Nigel whispered and kissed the skin just behind Lee’s ear, then breathed against it.

Eyes closing, Lee groaned at the kiss, the way Nigel’s lips felt and the sound of his voice deeper than usual, all sending a shiver through him.

“Can’t get well fast enough,” Nigel whispered, still quite happy to feel and kiss Lee, no matter how stuffed up they were.

“Maybe we just fuck it out of our systems?” Lee suggested, not even sure if that plausible, but hell, he’d fucked Nigel when he had cancer until he couldn’t get out of bed anymore.

“God, can we?” Nigel moaned, half-hard under the water already.

“I’d be willing to try.” Lee rolled his hips back against Nigel, the tub full of hot steamy water, it was a little easier to breathe in here.

Nigel slipped one finger into Lee, slowly, the water helping ease the way as he started to pleasure his husband, slowly.

Lee panted out, lifting his ass a little, then ground down on Nigel’s finger, head canted back against his shoulder. Even sick his body was attuned to his husband, always wanting. “Nigel…”

“Baby,” Nigel groaned, and stroked his finger into Lee’s body, rubbing the tip of it against his prostate before slipping the second finger in. 

“Fuck-” Lee grunted, gripping Nigel’s thigh with one hand, the other on the tub as he pushed himself forward, on his knees to give his husband better access.

“God, you’ve got me fucking hard, even sick …” Nigel moaned, and arched his hips up so that his cock rubbed against Lee’s smooth ass.

Lee reached out of the tub for the lube that sat right by it for these occasions, lifting his ass out of the water to slip some into him. “I don’t think there is much that would keep us from fucking like rabbits.”

“Short of my dick falling off, nothing,” Nigel whispered roughly in Lee’s ear and sat on the edge of the tub, his cock throbbing hard. “Wet me.”

Lee sank back and then leaned over Nigel and wrapped his mouth around him, licking and slurping at the head, and then having to pull off to breathe, and then went at it again, over and over.

“Fuck,” Nigel cursed, surprised that Lee would blow him, and even more aroused. He pulled Lee up, and into his lap, his tip rubbing against Lee’s tight pucker before it slid in.

Breathing a little heavier, Lee grinned, hands on Nigel’s shoulders as he eased himself down on his husband’s cock. “Missed this…”

“Fuck, yes, god, yes,” Nigel moaned, and guided Lee’s hips up and down.

Every grunt and moan from Nigel was deeper, and only turned Lee on  _ more _ . He covered his mouth with his hand as he coughed, breathing hard as he started to heat from the inside, deep in his core. “Don’t stop.”

Nigel was too distracted to cough, and sank them into the water, joined together. “Lee,” he moaned, hands roving over Lee’s ass.

Swallowing down the next round of coughs, Lee breathed in heavily, and let it out with a moan. “Nigel-” he managed.

Nigel’s hands fastened around Lee’s waist, and guided him up and down, quickly as he cleared his throat and started to thrust up into Lee’s body. The harder Lee managed to breath, the more it felt like something was coming loose in his lungs. His head fell against Nigel’s, panting as he worked his hips down against him, Nigel’s cock beating against his prostate, over and over.

Nigel could feel his lungs aching, but he didn’t stop thrusting. He leaned Lee back, arms supporting him as he lost himself in the feeling of Lee’s squeezing heat. “Jesus Christ- going to-”

“Come,” Lee finished for him, begging Nigel to do it as his own body built up and started to boil right over. He reached for his own cock, giving it a few good stroke and finally coming against Nigel’s stomach.

Nigel gasped, and then buried himself inside Lee as he came, hard and thick, inside Lee. “Fuck …” he moaned, raggedly, rocking Lee back and forth over him in the water as he climaxed. Finally, Nigel sank back against the edge of the tub and only then, coughed, turning his head away from Lee as he hacked.

“Better?” Lee asked, breathlessly, leaning against Nigel, now utterly exhausted.

Nigel finally stopped coughing and looked at Lee, smiling at him before he sniffled, and nuzzled his hair. “Much. I’m addicted to you…”

“I know,” Lee said, kissing the side of Nigel’s neck, sighing contently, the water still warm, but they were now wrinkly as old men, just as promised.

Nigel held Lee, and stretched his neck back for the kiss with a cough. “Do you feel better?”

“A little bit. More tired now,” Lee admitted, but honestly, sleep was the only thing that sounded good.

“Then we’ll go fucking sleep, hopefully that will fix us,” Nigel chuckled, well aware they’d be sick like this for a few days.

“Hopefully,” Lee said, leaning to drain the tub and then grabbed their towels, handing one to Nigel.

Nigel wrapped the towel around his hips and fell into bed with a sigh, spread out like a starfish, the back of the towel flipped up to show his ass, which Lee smacked once as he crawled in next to him, both mostly naked and passed out on the bed within minutes.

They slept soundly, for hours, Nigel snoring loudly through his plugged nose as he slept face down. He sounded like a bear, hibernating.

Will walked in sometime later with more tea, only to be presented with Nigel’s ass hanging out. He balked and set the tea down leaving quickly and shutting the door behind him, dogs out of the bedroom to let them rest.

Nigel heard movement that he didn’t expect, and opened his eyes in time to see the door closing. He looked at Lee next to him and gave a little groan when he realized his entire ass was on display. “Your brother just saw my ass.”

Lee hummed and rolled over, blinking his eyes open at Nigel. “What?”

Nigel laughed to himself, obviously far from traumatized by it. “Your brother just dropped off more tea,” he said, and nodded at his exposed ass.

Lee looked over and smiled and  rubbed Nigel’s ass with one hand. “At least it was just your ass.”

Nigel laughed, and reached for a kleenex to blow his nose, then handed Lee a cup of tea. “Pretty fucking sure I’m not his type.”

“I still don’t know what his ‘type’ is,” Lee laughed, and sat up, taking the hot tea. He felt a little better, but could just have been the nap.

“Who fucking knows? Probably fancy suits and all that shit,” Nigel shrugged and took the other cup of tea, sipping it.

Lee laughs, wheezing, and rubbing his chest. “Fancy suits? Have you seen Will?”

“Sometimes they go for the total fucking opposite of what you’d expect,” Nigel said as he sipped the tea, his sinuses starting to clear a little.

Lee got a tissue and started to blow, and blow, until he felt there was nothing left to get out, finally able to breath a bit. “True, but Will?”

“I dunno, that’s just what I get off of him,” Nigel said with a shrug. “He’s all … fucking flannelly and doesn’t own a comb but he’d take a second look at someone without a fucking hair out of place.”

“Have you seen him do that?” Lee asked, tossing the tissue and picking up his tea again.

“No,” Nigel admitted, “but I’ve never fucking seen him look twice at anyone. It’s just … I dunno, just feels right for some reason. Some polished motherfucker.”

“You realize we’re going to have to test that out, right?” Lee offered, smiling over the rim of his mug.

Nigel laughed, and shook ashy hair out of his eyes as he looked at Lee. “Yeah, how?”

“I don’t know. Find some refined businessman for him to check out. He doesn’t have to know that’s what we’re doing…” Lee suggested, flippantly.

“Just walk one past him?” Nigel laughed, “we’ll just have one fucking walk through, turn around, and walk out again, no words.”

“Why not? Or take him somewhere that has people like that. Paris has that, right?” Lee drank the last of his tea and then set the cup down, curling up against Nigel, no longer sweating from fever.

"Yeah, Paris has lots of that,” Nigel agreed, with a little smirk. Sleeping had done them both some good, thankfully.

It was possible Will didn’t want anyone, but Lee was going to be damned if he didn’t at least try. “Then we’ll try once we settle in there.”

“Some musician, maybe, or professor or something,” Nigel laughed. “Accountant.”

“Accountant?” Lee laughed out loud, voice crackling, and he grabbed his chest as he coughed.

Nigel smiled, crookedly at Lee laughing hard, and imagined it. “Will can drool over him while he does fucking taxes.”

“You think my brother is the biggest nerdy tightwad, don’t you?” Lee grinned, he had to admit, Will probably would get off on that.

“No, I think he’s into big nerdy tightwads,” Nigel smiled, and looked into the distance as he imagined it. “He’d want someone he can fucking mess up and rumple, you know?”

“So, he likes a challenge?” Lee shrugged, he could understand that actually, though Nigel hadn’t been a huge challenge to start with, keeping him happy and understanding was one.

“Yeah, exactly. He can read anyone, right? Everyone else is too fucking simple, he’d need someone who’s a little tougher to solve.” Nigel said, with a shrug.

“He does have us down, doesn’t he?” The brunet curled closer to Nigel, feeling his skin, happy to see that he wasn’t as hot now either.

“I get the feeling he knows what we’ll fucking do before we do,” NIgel agreed, and rested his head against and over Lee’s head. “Must make life pretty fucking boring.”

“You think?” Lee chuckled, snuggled in to Nigel

“Yeah, he needs someone to make him think a little,” Nigel murmured, and pulled the blanket over them, as they snuggled.

“Someone smart, good looking, and well groomed. I don’t know any of those kinds of people,” Lee whispered, as if Will might hear him.

Nigel laughed against Lee’s head. “So … I’m not smart  _ or _ good-looking …” he teased, softly.

Lee canted his head up to look at Nigel, seriously. “And single.”

“Okay, and  _ single _ . I don’t know any of those either,” Nigel laughed, and leaned in to kiss Lee’s forehead, sweetly.

“Hopefully we find someone in Paris,” Lee whispered, and tangled his fingers in Nigel’s chest hair.

Nigel smiled, and looked down at Lee’s fingers, “Some fancy French guy who plays the fucking piano or something like that. Maybe a chef…”

“It’s going to be really hard to find someone if we keep adding on things he’ll need to be,” Lee laughed, spreading his fingers through thick hair.

“He doesn’t need to be all those things, just might be some of those things,” Nigel said, and leaned back, basking in Lee’s adoration like a huge cat in a sunbeam.

“Mm, we’ll find something, he can’t be unmatchable,” the brunet insisted, loving the way Nigel seemed to soak up all the ways Lee doted on him.

“I thought I was fucking unmatchable,” Nigel purred, a lazy grin on his sculpted lips as Lee strummed his fingers through Nigel’s chest hair.

“We both just had some bad luck in finding someone until we found each other,” Lee stated, not sounding nearly as clogged up, but still raspy.

“Maybe that’s all Will needs, luck,” Nigel mused, and handed Lee his cup of tea to drink.

“Maybe…” Lee agreed, taking the mug.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're done here, for this part of the series. We'll be back, so be sure to subscribe to the series!

After getting better from their colds, Nigel and Lee packed up, and left with Will for Paris on a private plane, which was packed to the brim with the large pack of dogs, including the mama dog from Bev. They finally touched down, and disembarked the plane, greeted with mild weather and sunshine, as well as a waiting SUV large enough for all of them together.    
  
Nigel stretched after taking the keys from his waiting assistant, and helped load their bags into the back while the dogs ran around the private hangar to stretch their legs. “Welcome to France,” he said to his husband and brother in law. “It gets prettier than this fucking hangar, don’t worry.”

“I’m hoping it will be a bit like older parts of NOLA,” Lee said, taking Nigel’s hand as they walked slowly, Will behind them with one of his own bags, and a bunch of leashes for the dogs when they were ready to be wrangled.

“Yeah, probably,” Nigel agreed, and held Lee’s door open for him as one of Nigel’s men forged stamps on their passports, making it look completely official, then left without a word. Nigel took the passports, gave Will his, and got into the driver’s seat. “The airport isn’t that far from our house, only forty-five minutes or so, that’s good for a big city.”

Will got the dogs all into the car and then slid into the back, pocketing the passport, happy to be in the back with the dogs as Nigel and Lee took the front. Lee buckled in and rolled the window down to look at the scenery.

Nigel exchanged a few words in French with his people who were packing up the plane, and then drove off, joining an exit road out of the airport hub. In a few moments, they were on a freeway, and the famous skyline of Paris was visible. “Look … you can see the fucking Eiffel Tower from here,” Nigel said, pointing for his husband.

Lee grinned as he looked; he’d never been here, though he’d always wanted to come. “We’ll have to go there soon. On one of our outings.”

As they entered the city, more of the beauty Paris was famous for became clear: charming shops, florist’s stores brimming with blooms, and graceful trees along the sides of the street. “There. ‘Vin’, that’s French for wine. Anywhere you see that? Wine.”

Lee laughed. “I figured that much.” He watched every shop that said that, sure that he’d want to get to all of them in their first week at least.

Nigel stopped at a light and looked over at Lee with a smirk. “Already itching to jump out and get some?” he laughed, and laced their fingers together.

Lee smiled over at Nigel. “I’m making a list.”

Nigel took off at the light, again, driving slowly so that Lee could see their new city. Soon, they crossed a bridge, and after a few turns, found a chic community of expensive houses with large plots of land. “This is more toward the edge of the city, but pretty goddamned close. Not walking distance, but not a long drive, either. Don’t fucking bother with the subway, it’s a piece of shit.”

“I guess I’m counting on one of you to drive me for wine then,” Lee teased, watching the beautiful scenery around them as they drove, wind whipping by the car and in through the window.

“One of us, yeah,” Nigel said as he turned a corner and approached their new house via a long, stonework driveway.

“It’s bigger than I thought,” Lee whispered, big blue eyes wide. He got out the second the car stopped, and jogged up to the front of the house, looking at the length of it.

Nigel climbed out, and got a few bags from the back of the SUV as the dogs hurried out to run around on the grass with each other. “Not too fucking bad,” he admitted, looking at the modern house. It was quiet here, thankfully, the sound of city traffic a distant hum in the background. He tossed a key to Lee, with a smirk. “Do the honours.”

Lee caught it as Will walking up behind them to round up the dogs, a few other bags in hand. Lee put the key in the lock with a smirk back at Nigel, and then twisted, pushing the door in. An Alarm started to sound, loudly.

“For fuck’s sake,” Nigel muttered, and checked his phone before he keyed in a code to silence the alarm.

The dogs were howling from it, and then stopped when the noise died down. “At least we know our stuff is safe,” Lee murmured, entering the house, Beauty rushing in past them to check it out.

Nigel picked Beast up to calm him, and carried him into the spacious, modern house. “Unless the robber is fucking deaf,” Nigel chuckled.

“Everyone else isn’t though,” Lee pointed out with a smile, mostly teasing of course. He’d lived in seedy places before he met Nigel, and had only ever had issues  _ after _ Nigel. But that hardly mattered. “It’s beautiful.”

Will hung back, checking the locks and the security system out for himself, Buster at his heels.

Nigel walked into the kitchen and looked around, then opened the fridge, which was, thankfully, stocked. “Hungry?”

“First thing you do when we get here is ask if I’m hungry?” Lee asked with a big, wrapping his arms around Nigel from behind, chin on his shoulder. “I could eat.”

“Don’t want you losing that perfect ass of yours,” Nigel smirked, and turned back to kiss Lee with a grin.

“That’s what you’re worried about?” Lee asked, smirking against Nigel’s mouth as he wound his arms around his shoulders. Nigel never failed to get him to smile, even after a long, long plane ride.

“One of them,” Nigel said as he kissed Lee again, and swatted his ass. “It’d be a fucking tragedy.”

“Can you two do that in private?” Will asked as he stepped into the kitchen to check it out too, and then set out bowls of water for the dogs. He was teasing, mostly.

Lee bit Nigel’s bottom lip and palmed his chest. “We’ll try.”

"We’re fucking home. This is fucking private,” Nigel said, and started to get ingredients from the fridge, muscles flexing under Lee’s hands.

Lee nibbled on Nigel’s neck and Will rolled his eyes, leaving the kitchen to explore the rest of the house.

“See? He needs someone,” Nigel whispered.

“I’ll get right on it,” Lee whispered back, into Nigel’s ear as he worked.

Nigel shivered at the whisper and reached back to palm Lee’s thigh before he took a knife from the new block and examined it under the light before he used it to slice some smoked meat. “I’ll get right on you…”

“Please do,” Lee crooned against the shell of Nigel’s ear, arms around his waist, and up his chest, feeling him out.

Nigel’s black shirt warmed under Lee’s hands as it was pressed up against the contours of his chest, and he smirked as Lee groped at him, “you’re going to fucking  _ eat _ first,” he said, determined not to be distracted.

“Yes,  _ Daddy _ ,” Lee breathed breathlessly, nosing against Nigel's neck.

Nigel groaned at that, and reached his hand back to cup Lee’s groin, checking to see if he was already hard. “You fucking minx,” Nigel purred.

Lee ground his hips into Nigel’s hand, half hard just thinking about their new room in their new house. “You love me.”

“Yeah, I fucking love you,” Nigel purred, and turned around sharply to kiss Lee on the lips, hard and deep.

The brunet gasped at that, and tugged Nigel closer by the hips, rutting into them with his own as their mouths clashed together. “Mm, I can tell.”

“What was your first fucking clue?” Nigel breathed against Lee’s lips, and bit at their perfect, petal pink curves.

“When you wanted to marry me, despite me dyin’,” Lee crooned softly, biting Nigel’s lips back, gazing at him with eyes hooded.

Nigel crouched and picked Lee up, with both arms, then tipped his head back and kissed him as he pressed Lee against their new kitchen wall, utterly taken with him all over again at the memory.

A groan escaped Lee’s lips against Nigel’s mouth, tugging him as close as he could manage, hands in his longer hair, legs around his hips. “Nigel-”

“You fucking made me fall for you,” Nigel whispered, between slow, hot kisses, food utterly forgotten as he lost himself in the feeling of kissing Lee with what was becoming frantic passion.

“With my terrible charms, how dare I?” Lee groaned softly, swallowing hard as he kissed Nigel harder, touching his face with both hands, tender and yet needy all at once.

Nigel had no plans on falling for anyone when he met Lee. Lee had taken him completely off guard, but Nigel hadn’t hesitated for a moment. He started to carry Lee up the long flight of stairs to the second story, kissing him over and over as he did so.

“What, no food?” Lee snickered as their mouths meshed together over and over again, arms and legs tight around him.

“You’re hungry for something else,” Nigel teased as he stopped in the hallway and looked at the doors, then opened one, looking inside. It was just a bathroom. He kept opening door after door as they kissed until finally, they found the room.

“How many do we have?” Lee chuckled as he bit and kissed Nigel’s pulse. “Rooms like this? Just one,” Nigel whispered as he carried Lee inside, and set him on the swing after he closed the door behind him with one foot.

“Lock it,” Lee suggested, toeing off his boots and kicking them toward the door.

Nigel reached behind him, and locked the door without taking his eyes off of Lee, and started to undo his shirt, slowly. “Sound proof, too…”

“You’ve thought of everything,” Lee said, socks off next, balled together and thrown as his eyes raked down Nigel’s body as skin appeared.

Nigel peeled his shirt off slowly in the dim light, and strode toward Lee as he kicked his shoes off, “I’m more than just a pretty fucking face,” he smirked. Nigel leaned over Lee again for a slow, commanding kiss to his lips.

Lee groaned into it, touching Nigel’s bare chest with his fingers, skimming upward over the ample chest hair. “Yes you are.”

Nigel undid his belt, and tossed it aside, then unzipped his pants and let them slide down his thighs to the ground as he kissed Lee and undid his pants, too, pulling them off. Lee slid out of his pants and kicked them off and then quickly pulled his t-shirt off, throwing that aside too.

“That’s more fucking like it,” Nigel whispered as he looked at Lee’s tight, lean body where he sat on the padded swing, and pulled Lee closer, by the ropes from which the swing hung. Lee was at exactly the perfect height to wrap his legs around Nigel’s hips, which Nigel coaxed him into with a touch of his hands.

So, Lee did, long legs tight around his hips. “I like this.” The whole room was exciting, and Lee was ready to use every single piece of equipment that Nigel had picked out.

“Yeah?” Nigel asked, and ground himself against Lee’s ass where it hung over the edge of the swing. “What do you like about it?”

“It’s new, it’s different, it’s… going to be  _ fun _ ,” Lee crooned, leaning up to kiss Nigel, biting his bottom lip. Lee was always out to try new things.

Nigel was very aware of his husband’s appetite for adventure, and sought to satisfy it. He pulled at the swing, gently, and rocked Lee against his cock, letting it graze lazily across Lee’s ass cheek, and into the cleft where it rubbed and teased. “Not about to let this get boring…”

“Far from boring,” Lee grinned, rubbing his ass down on Nigel’s cock, feeling it leak against his hole as he bit into his own bottom lip.

Nigel shivered at the feeling, and then kissed Lee before he stepped away, still throbbing and hard against his own stomach. “We’re stocked up,” he said, and opened a cabinet to show Lee an absolutely ridiculous number of lube bottles. He took one, and brought it back over to Lee where he waited on the swing, slicking his fingers as he stepped in closer.

“We’ll never have to worry. We can put a bottle in each room, even Will’s if he finds someone,” Lee laughed, and spread his legs wider, ass up.

Nigel plunged his fingers inside Lee, slowly, watching his husband’s face as he did so. He twisted his fingers, and crooked them just so before he started to thrust them in and out, torturing his impatient husband with the slow sensuality.

Lee liked it fast and hard and multiple times, and this was torture that easily spread to pleasure. He dropped his back, hands know the swings tethers panting. “Fuck-”

If Lee always got what he wanted, that would be boring. Nigel coaxed Lee open, slowly, and then dropped to his knees to drag his tongue over Lee’s balls with the same deliberate pace.

Gripping the ropes tightly, Lee let go a gasp, fully aware his husband was drawing out every last bit of teasing he could withstand before diving in. “Fuck, Nigel…”

Nigel hummed, and flickered his tongue around the outside of Lee’s asshole as he fingered it. “Frustrated?”

“Inevitably,” Lee groaned, toes stretched out as every nerve in his body lit up on fire. Nigel knew how to play him perfectly, like he was an instrument.

Nigel laughed, and sucked at Lee’s balls as he started to finger him harder, both fingertips rubbing hard against his prostate as he rolled his husband’s testicles in his hot mouth, one, then the other, over and over.

Toes curling and uncurling, Lee just finally relax back in the swing, not use fighting a good thing. His cock leaked against his thigh, aching hard. “You laugh, of course you laugh,” he groaned.

“Laugh at how fucking easy it is to make you almost split open with pleasure,” Nigel moaned against Lee’s thigh, and pulled his fingers out, slowly, then slapped the side of Lee’s ass cheek. “Have I tortured you enough?”

“I don't know, have you?” Lee flirted, utterly spread and wanton for Nigel.

Nigel poured lube over his cock and pumped it twice with one hand, then pulled Lee closer by the swing, and pressed inside him as he made a low, shaking moaning noise that came from deep within his chest.

“I guess that's a yes,” Lee groaned, mouth gaping as Nigel pushed in tight. 

“Yes,” Nigel agreed with breathless pleasure, and pressed himself hip deep inside Lee’s lean body, both hands clutching Lee’s thighs as he pulled him closer, the swing making it easy.

“I like the leverage this has,” Lee groaned, wrapping his long, muscular runner’s legs around Nigel’s hips, canting his own to take him deeper with a breathless moan. Nigel started to yank Lee over him as he arched his hips, and let his head fall forward as he enjoyed the way Lee’s body encapsulated his cock, perfectly. The simultaneous pull and push of Lee’s body and Nigel’s hips made a loud slapping sound every time they connected, and Nigel yanked Lee over him, faster and faster.

Heated pleasure spiked through Lee quickly, already worked up to the point he had wanted to come just seconds before Nigel started to really fuck him. His head lolled back on his neck, throat exposed as he arched, tensing.

“Fuck-” was the only word Nigel could manage as he watched Lee’s head drop back, and his neck stretch out. Something about how smooth, how vulnerable the stretch of pale flesh was put Nigel over the edge. He hissed through his teeth and then shouted as he came inside Lee, holding him close as he kept thrusting, riding it out.

“Nigel-!” Lee managed feeling the pulse of his cock, and then followed right after him, eyes squeezed shut until it passed.

Nigel slid his arms around Lee to keep him from falling back in the swing, and held him as he came, come rolling down the inside of his thigh to drip on the floor, baptizing it.    
  
Slowly, Nigel pulled Lee from the swing, and helped him to a sofa against the wall where he laid with him, their limbs tangled. “So, you like it?”

“I love it,” Lee murmured, all lithe limbed as he kissed Nigel heated for all that he did for him.

Nigel hummed, and kissed Lee back, then nuzzled Lee’s handsome, sweaty face. “Just the start, baby.”

A mischievous grin flitted across Lee’s features, brightening his already light blue eyes as he grinned widely. “You do know how to sate me.”

“Same here, little bird,” Nigel whispered as he touched the tiny, dark eyelashes under Lee’s eye with his thumb, tenderly.

“My bear,” Lee sighed, gazing up at Nigel with half hooded eyes. “I love you.”

“Love you, too. You’re gonna like France,” Nigel said, softly, still caressing Lee’s face and neck with his fingertips, just for the joy of touching him.

“Can’t wait to get out into it,” Lee whispered, heaving a big sigh, content to just lie there a bit longer. Air travel was taxing.

“Tomorrow. We’ll start all that shit tomorrow. Today, we just settle in here,” Nigel smiled, lazily.

Lee laughed. “You still owe me food…”

“Fucking demanding,” Nigel teased, and kissed Lee’s cheek before he sat up, and stretched, then started to dress, slowly.

Lee got up and squeezed Nigel’s ass with both hands, and then found his own clothes. “I am starved.”

“All I do is fuck you and feed you,” Nigel growled, happily, and gave Lee’s throat a little bite as he did his shirt up over his chest full of silver hair.

Hand out, Lee stopped Nigel from doing up too many buttons. “That’s no one’s fault but your own…”

“That’s what I get for marrying you?” Nigel asked, and left his shirt undone as he helped Lee dress, his eyes gleaming with good humor.

“You spoiled me with all the fucking and food from the first day,” Lee pointed out, tugging his on over his shoulders and chest, and then slipped into his jeans.

“And you got addicted to it, huh?” Nigel asked as he watched Lee dress with a sigh.

“I married you, didn’t I?” Lee teased, leaning in to kiss Nigel’s naturally pouty lips.

“You did, and you seemed pretty fucking happy about it,” Nigel whispered, and kissed Lee back, adoringly, then opened the door to the now very warm room.

Lee left his socks and shoes there, following Nigel out. “I was. I  _ am _ .”

Beauty met them, wagging, happy to find them again in the big house. “Good, me too,” Nigel whispered and kissed Lee’s neck before he scratched Beauty behind the ear and headed downstairs to the kitchen, whistling happily.

Lee was  _ sure _ he’d never seen Nigel so happy. He followed after him, taking the steps a few at a time, and then hugged Nigel from behind once in the kitchen again. “I’m glad to see you in such great spirits, my bear.”

Nigel smiled to himself, quietly, as he resumed slicing some meat for their lunch, and a few strands of silver hair fell into his eyes as he mused to himself. “You’re healthy, we’re in fucking Paris, you know everything about me, and still want me. What the fuck isn’t to be happy about?”

“I’m just glad to see it on you. When we met you weren’t unhappy but you weren’t happy either,” Lee explained, chin on Nigel’s shoulder, back where they started.

“I was getting by,” Nigel explained, and started to slice a thick loaf of bread that looked like a cloud inside.

“So was I.” Lee went to get glasses down and then wandered off to look at what was stocked in the wine cellar.

Nigel looked after his husband as he started to cook. Lee hadn’t just been getting by, he’d been barely surviving. “Ever wonder what the fuck would have happened if we hadn’t met?”

Lee hummed as he picked out a nice white to go with sandwiches and then wandered around to find the corkscrew. “I’d be dead,” Lee said, flatly. He had money, yes, enough for what Nigel had done for him? Maybe, but the fact of the matter was Lee had nothing left to live for, he’d been willing to go before he met Nigel.

“You wouldn’t have fought?” Nigel asked, with a swallow and a deep breath at the thought of Lee dying so young. This was, then, a borrowed life for Lee, years he would never have had if Nigel hadn’t carried Beauty into Lee’s shop that day.

“I fought for over ten years. I was in the last stage, Nigel. Fighting for…” Lee’s brows furrowed a little as he poured two glasses of wine and then popped the cork back in. “What? I had no family that wanted me, or knew about me, friends were very come and go…” He was going to say that if he needed something sexual he could find it easily, but clipped that part off and walked a glass over to Nigel. “I was ready.”

“No attachments,” Nigel said, smart enough that he could tell not only what Lee said, but what he deliberately didn’t say, for his sake.

“It was convenient. Bide my time day-by-day. Then you came into my shop, and you stuck around. You surprised me,” Lee said, brows raised as he leaned back against the counter, watching Nigel. I should have known though, you had an aura about you.”

“Aura…” Nigel laughed, and kept cooking as he smiled to himself, wryly. 

Lee rolled his eyes at his husband, and pushed off the counter. “Laugh if you want.”

“You believe in it, I don’t,” Nigel shrugged, still smiling as he watched Lee push himself from the counter. He had a tendency to track him with his stare, unable to look away for too long.

Lee went to the back door, watching Will out back with all the dogs, even the puppy, rolling around and throwing a ball for them. “I was right though.”

“About my aura?” Nigel asked, as their lunch started to make the kitchen smell enticing.

“Look at all you’ve done for me. You might have a shady background, you might do shady things, but you’ve got a heart of gold where it counts,” Lee explained.

“Mostly in the heart area?” Nigel said with a teasing glance and offered Lee a little bite of a melted cheese sandwich.

“Mostly,” Lee teased and walked back over to take the bite of sandwich, licking it off Nigel’s fingers.

“Some maybe a little lower?” Nigel asked as he watched Lee’s tongue with a smirk.

Lee narrowed his eyes a little and bit at Nigel’s thumb. “That, too.”

“Hmm,” Nigel groaned, and watched Lee’s mouth with dark, greedy eyes.

Lee leaned and grabbed a half of the sandwich, done or not, starved, and then licked his fingers as the cheese oozed out. “Mmm.”

“It’s not even brown on the second side,” Nigel protested, with a laugh in his tone.

“I'm hungry,” Lee protested, with a little frown, but put the rest back.

“It’ll take thirty seconds,” Nigel chuckled, and kissed Lee’s cheek as he browned the rest of the sandwich.

“I’m going to count,” Lee said, watching the sandwich with longing. “One… Two...Three…”

“It’s done, it’s fucking done,” Nigel said and put the sandwich on a plate, laughing at his husband.

Lee took the plate and kissed Nigel’s cheek sweetly, going off with his wine and meal, footing the back door open to watch his brother and all the dogs. They had a new life here, and with Will in it, Lee felt nothing could possibly go wrong.


End file.
